tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36722462024-03-12T20:28:44.108-04:00Fumbling towards BeatitudeOccasional postings of texts and miscellany from John O'Brien, S.J., since 2004. John D. O'Brien, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14718447464911984436noreply@blogger.comBlogger81125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672246.post-85471526974166837432021-12-10T18:10:00.017-05:002021-12-10T21:21:54.547-05:00Walking to Loreto<div class="Ar Au Ao" id=":1lc"><div aria-label="Message Body" aria-multiline="true" class="Am Al editable LW-avf tS-tW tS-tY" g_editable="true" hidefocus="true" id=":1l8" role="textbox" spellcheck="false" style="direction: ltr; min-height: 261px;" tabindex="1"><div aria-label="Message Body" aria-multiline="true" class="Am Al editable LW-avf tS-tW tS-tY" g_editable="true" hidefocus="true" id=":1l8" role="textbox" spellcheck="false" style="direction: ltr; min-height: 261px;" tabindex="1"><div aria-label="Message Body" aria-multiline="true" class="Am Al editable LW-avf tS-tW tS-tY" g_editable="true" hidefocus="true" id=":1l8" role="textbox" spellcheck="false" style="direction: ltr; min-height: 261px;" tabindex="1"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiXGltlyLodImSw6Hedr_XC1NX_7cerTFyRRHRliFNqNefqSHW2oyQHK_oVSCvijCGeybi1UN5mecwgK9SmsTuMkd-zmwFD8YnVBj-5qnnFHZdswRulmwJb4lnvGdrWXpH890ZrWk5FkcBo1z7zgsJSPQBquBg5YNOaGBNWe1Awkib0VPy_8A=s639" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="470" data-original-width="639" height="294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiXGltlyLodImSw6Hedr_XC1NX_7cerTFyRRHRliFNqNefqSHW2oyQHK_oVSCvijCGeybi1UN5mecwgK9SmsTuMkd-zmwFD8YnVBj-5qnnFHZdswRulmwJb4lnvGdrWXpH890ZrWk5FkcBo1z7zgsJSPQBquBg5YNOaGBNWe1Awkib0VPy_8A=w400-h294" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div>The idea of making a pilgrimage, that is, journeying to a place of spiritual significance, is commonly understood by Catholics and non-Catholics alike, but as to what may be entailed by an <i>Ignatian</i> pilgrimage might require some explanation. </div><div> </div><div>Basically, such a pilgrimage is undertaken after the example of that perennial pilgrim St. Ignatius of Loyola, who wanted to follow the steps of the first disciples of Christ, who were sent to preach without any provisions (Mt 10:5-16, etc.), and to rely entirely on whatever God would provide. It was in this spirit of trusting in Providence, that I, too, set out for an eight-day foot pilgrimage in Italy, with one travelling companion, no money, just a razor and a toothbrush between us.</div><div> </div><div>We were both, it should be said, living in Rome and discerning our vocations. A pilgrimage such as this was both indicative of our youth and anticipatory of the consecrated life to which we were drawn.</div><div> </div><div>Our destination, we decided, would be the Marian shrine at Loreto near Ancona, close to the Adriatic coast in the region of Le Marche. It had been visited over the course of 700 years by a long list of saints, including Ignatius. </div><div> </div><div>But why Loreto? And who is Our Lady of Loreto? Why that title and why that place? A thousand years ago, the knights known as the crusaders had taken the holy land from the Muslims (who had conquered it from the Byzantines) and made Nazareth their capital. An Italian family named the Angeli had decided to restore the house in Nazareth known to have been Mary's. When a Muslim army won a key victory near Nazareth, the Angelis took down the stones of the house and shipped them to Italy where they were reassembled in its present location of Loreto. Later a basilica was built around the stone house, and still later the little house was enclosed in marble. It became one of the most visited Marian shrines in Europe.</div><div><br /></div><div>To begin our pilgrimage, my companion and I took the train to a town called Jesi, which I had calculated was about a 7-day walk from Loreto. We found the local cathedral, and commended our endeavour to the Lord. Our prayer was primarily that we might seek the Kingdom in manifold ways, rather than simply to find food and somewhere to sleep. We tried to be conscious of this in the days that followed.</div><div> </div><div>After wandering the streets of Jesi we met a husband and wife who oversaw a kitchen for the disadvantaged (including in this case, your pilgrims). After supper the same Christian couple took us to a hostel and paid for our lodging there. This proved to be a kind of leitmotiv during the pilgrimage, namely a sense of vulnerability and poverty that was responded to in unexpected ways.</div><div> </div><div>The life of the pilgrim is not only one of simple joys, such as encountering the generosity of others or the free feeling of the ‘open road’, but also a certain humility or rather <i>humiliation</i> of having to beg for food and to accept when that request is granted or denied. After the consolation of Jesi, the next night we experienced the desolation of having nowhere to stay. We just continued walking into pitch darkness of the countryside, and eventually attempted to sleep on a grassy bank beside the road. We were probably still a little shy to be begging randomly. The sleep was fitful and full of insects.</div><div> </div><div>In the following days, we experienced both rejection, from a parish priest who probably thought we were scamps (and maybe we were. I appropriately shook the dust from my sandals before leaving) – and also the hospitality of another parish priest, an elderly <i>parroco</i> who gave us beds to sleep on and invited us to his table for dinner. It was the feast of St. Peter and Paul, and he said that under no circumstances could he refuse two strangers, who might as well have been Peter and Paul. He had been the parish priest in that town for 50 years.</div><div> </div><div>At the end of the fourth day, we found accommodation in the town of Osimo, which turned out to be the place of the tomb of St. Joseph of Cupertino, the ‘flying friar’ of levitation fame. The next day, while walking along the narrow streets of the town, we spotted an open door, with sounds of joyful activity coming from within. It was a parish centre hosting a party for a group of immigrant children, and amazingly, we two pilgrims (also technically immigrants) were admitted to the feasting and games. </div><div><br /></div><div>The next day we played basketball in a park with a few Italian youth. Our only witness to the Gospel was when we announced that we were off to daily Mass, causing some astonishment.</div><div> </div><div>On the afternoon of the fifth day, I found myself quite hungry, and as we were walking down a country road, we came across a fig tree, laden with dark ripe figs. Thankful, I ate a few. We carried on, but before long, with the hot Italian sun beating down, I became sick to my stomach, and started vomiting beside the road. It was, I must say, a low point, and I couldn’t muster the will to go any farther. We spotted a monastery in the valley below. I groaned to my companion, perhaps a bit melodramatically, to go on ahead without me, and ask for sanctuary. Some time later, he returned and said the Franciscans there were willing to help us, but the superior wanted to talk to us first. We were brought to his office and interrogated at length. He couldn’t wrap his mind around the idea of two anglophones tramping the roads of Italy on pilgrimage. Most people flew to Loreto or drove in coach buses. Besides, <i>who</i> were we exactly? Not exactly seminarians, but foreigners deciding on religious life? I found his consternation a bit funny, and I started smiling with my answers, which must of signalled that we were honest and benign, and not vagabondish brigands deceptively claiming to be pilgrims.</div><div> </div><div>We stayed with the Franciscans for two days and nights. At our request, they gave us work to do, cleaning and organizing a decrepit library. They were a new community in an old monastery, which was also a kind of Shrine called Campocavallo. We joined them in their little cloister for prayer and meals, and soon a robust Christian friendship grew between us. Some of the friars were from the Philippines, and grateful for the chance to speak English. We had to keep moving, however, and departed the community with professions of mutual prayers and best wishes.</div><div><br /></div><div>The next evening we were close to Loreto. In the dim light of dusk, the basilica became visible on its mount, though still a number of miles away. We prayed the rosary and shared some milk and biscuits someone gave us as we tramped along the highway. When we entered the town of Loreto, it had become dark. The religious communities that ran the hotels with all their “amenities” could not allow two penniless pilgrims to sleep for free. A nun admitted their hotel was a four-star hotel. That night we did what failed mendicants like us did: we slept in a park on benches. I tied a plastic bag around my feet and another one with breathing holes around my head for protection from the bugs and breeze. Depleted, and a bit dejected at the inglorious finale to our journey, I experienced a deep feeling of impoverishment. At journey’s end, there had been no room in the inn. What would happen now?</div><div><br /></div><div>When morning came, the birds began to chirp and the roosters in the valleys began to crow, I got up from the bench, and hiked up to the shrine of Our Lady of Loreto. </div><div> </div><div>I walked into the basilica, and up to the marble-enclosed holy house. On the inside, you could see the ancient stones of Mary's home. I saw words inscribed in Latin: "Hic verbum caro factum est" (Here, the Word because flesh). Being within the space where Gabriel had appeared to Mary struck me profoundly. I sat down and prayed. I remembered that Mary had been empty and poor. Even after her marriage to Joseph, they were homeless for a time. They had to flee to a foreign land. My own week of temporary poverty was nothing compared to theirs. And theirs was nothing compared to God’s, who had emptied himself and became man.</div><div><br /></div><div>Yet Mary, by this self-emptying, had set in motion the reversal of the curse of sin, by listening to the word of God and following it, the "new Eve". Her poverty was linked to her trusting dependence on a provident God.</div><div> </div><div>On our last day in Loreto, I was spiritually full but, I must admit, hungry (again), and really needed to sleep on a bed. We knocked on one door to ask for help, and a priest answered it. I told him our story that we were pilgrims to Loreto but had no money for a place to sleep. I’ll never forget that priest. He dug his hands into his pocket and gave me some of his own money for food. Then he said come with me, and we jumped into his car and he brought us to his parish hall, gave me a key and showed us a place where we could sleep. That night, sleep never felt so good.</div><div> </div><div>At the shrine in Loreto there was a list of saints who had visited there, going back hundreds of years. It included favourites like St. Therese of Lisieux and St. Maximillian Kolbe. There was also a gallery of art exclusively of scenes of the Annunciation. But I will mainly remember the Shrine to Our Lady of Loreto as the place where I learned to trust in God.</div><div> </div><div>“For the almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.”</div><div><br /></div><div>- J.O.</div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div><i>Two years later I was a Jesuit novice. In the novitiates of the Society of Jesus novices make an "Ignatian pilgrimage" for one month's duration. My week-long pilgrimage in Italy had so prepared me by hard consolation, that the longer one in Canada was, by God’s mercy, smooth and blessed. St. Ignatius praised pilgrimages as practices that conduce to God powerfully, and the increase of our faith, hope and love.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>My travelling companion on the pilgrimage to Loreto is now a Benedictine monk at an abbey in England.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>In 2019 Pope Francis added Our Lady of Loreto to the liturgical calendar of the Catholic Church. It is celebrated on December 10.</i></div><div> </div></div></div></div></div>John D. O'Brien, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14718447464911984436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672246.post-52304093448914276352021-08-23T13:49:00.020-04:002021-09-20T23:26:06.195-04:00Will Pemberton, RIP<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix7OS8lutDU2aDdV1t6lCzLqIhoTjBIX4B8PXoivFj9J9fKInB77IBvQfpVZPUrksSIq6vv1Qw-ZLjM_PKJAZaWJV09bBcdWmjbI34UsXqRAYiImQKucKs1ZAn_ALund3npKV4/s960/239183368_10159208658986970_315936347434522934_n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="720" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix7OS8lutDU2aDdV1t6lCzLqIhoTjBIX4B8PXoivFj9J9fKInB77IBvQfpVZPUrksSIq6vv1Qw-ZLjM_PKJAZaWJV09bBcdWmjbI34UsXqRAYiImQKucKs1ZAn_ALund3npKV4/w480-h640/239183368_10159208658986970_315936347434522934_n.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">My first encounter with Will Pemberton was in December 1997 in the snowy wooded landscape of Combermere, Ontario. We were working at Madonna House, where the days were spent splitting firewood, shovelling snow, and peeling large amounts of vegetables. Only 18, he was the youngest of the male guests, but he was also among the most thoughtful and articulate. While the rest of us played cards or Scrabble during our moments of free time, Will usually played his violin, to himself or to whoever would listen. Music was just one of his many languages.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">I met Will again a few years later while visiting a seminary in British Columbia. It was the annual school concert, and rising from the sea of talent was the tall, ruddy man from Parry Sound. He led a schola in sacred polyphony and played some raucous folk songs on guitar, his melodious voice and booming laughter filling the gymnasium. He once told me that during seminary he decided to learn one Irish song per day for a whole year. Consequently he'd memorized a huge repertoire of traditional folksongs. It was a very Will thing to do.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Will left the seminary after discerning a call to marriage. That discernment was in large part due to meeting my sister. Will told me some years later, with great literal earnestness, that upon meeting her he knew that if he couldn't marry her he would die. “What, you would have ended your life?” I asked. “No,” he said. “Not that. I just knew that I would not have been able to live.”</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">T</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">hus began the great romance of William and Mary, whose courtship started at the ceili barn dances near Peterborough, Ontario, and who both, though at different times, were teachers in my school. They were stars in their own ways, each with a remarkable skill for and enjoyment of the cultivation of learning and its transmission to young souls. Mary, then my housemate, came back from her first official date with Will and had an unmistakable sparkle in her eye. I asked if she had decided if Will was the one, and she nodded and said simply, yes. One date was all it took.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Their wedding was a riotous drama sheened with grandeur. Unable to book a hall large enough for the hundreds of people they had informally invited, they had to settle for an outdoor pavilion at a city park. When a major storm hit Peterborough two days before the wedding, basements and halls were flooded everywhere. The mayor declared a state of emergency and the newspaper featured a front-page photo of a beaver swimming down main street. Clearly in the hands of providence, Will and Mary’s awesome, eclectic feast went ahead on the dry high ground of the park surrounded by large puddles and the inbreaking of sunshine. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Will's had six children with Mary and his love for them ran deep. When I returned raw from my vocational discernment in Rome, having contemplated the high Trinitarian theology of von Balthasar for two years, I was powerfully struck watching Will interact with his eldest son Willie, a toddler. Will’s eyes were full of paternal delight as he spoke to him and Willie shouted “papa” over and over again through his laughter. I will remember it always as an iconic image of the Father and Son relations that are at the origin of the world.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Will was a colossus of charisma and knowledge. You had to be able to meet him head on, or be a good listener, and as his friend John Jalsevac says about their friendship, it was based on many years of intellectual wrangling. But like the Gaelic warriors God made mad, they enjoyed their warring as well as their sad songs. Will’s life, you could say, was a steady pursuit of beauty and truth, which he sought with an unusual passion and discipline. For the first decade or so he spoke to his children only in Latin. He began a Ph.D. in Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto. He corresponded with many professors.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Will's formidable intellect was coupled by his love for the simple things of life he shared with Mary: their children, books, gardens, coffee and kombucha. He seemed to be able to see the “dearest freshness deep down things” of objects, persons and art. While he could ably discuss theology, philosophy or literature, he loved woodworking and the science of permaculture farming. If asked, he could also recite the entire The Princess Bride movie from start to finish.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">In recent years I did not see as much of Will as I would have liked. Religious life had taken me to other places. He and his family moved from Ontario to Nova Scotia to pursue their dream of living off the land in Cape Breton. The summer before covid, I got to visit them there, and spent three golden days in which Will showed me his fields, woods and Icelandic sheep, and the kids and I explored the big brown boulders that make up the shore near Margaree Harbour. We saw whales spume out at sea, stared back at a curious seal, and discovered a beautiful lime-green lunar moth the size of my hand. But celebrating Mass in their home will remain my most enduring memory, with my nephews serving and Will chanting the Lord’s Prayer in a deep Russian baritone.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">I saw Will a couple more times, after they returned to Ontario to try to cure the cancer that appeared in his body. By then, fighting the disease was a full-time project, and he was usually low energy when I visited them at my parents’ house. But his curiosity and humour were intact, and he had a new aura of serenity.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">In the end, Will had a remarkable death. In his last letter to his friends and supporters he spoke of his gratitude for the time he had been given to live, for the wife and children he’d been given to love, and for the land that he’d given to tend and cultivate. His main grief was the painfully early leave-taking of his children. But in his last days, he said he was looking forward to what was coming next. Such faith in the face of death is rare but as Mary said to me today, it will be remembered by their children long into their lives. Will, she said, was fathering them even in the manner of his dying.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Let us pray for the soul of Will, and for the wife and family he has left behind. And may we all meet again merrily in heaven, where God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things will have passed away.</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">William Pemberton (1978-2021)</span><o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Requiescat in Pace</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4cCLmG_7XjBeKyNGayI0dYici8BEaxTetNkLrb3bZ6jQ8aoPTfRlRjSnjkZUhisRzsKHu49IJGwxCvsQBFffUrKiaaMEtKy07_iGgzPkzpSiUR5rt3kXBu7wuAvztm1_I1jPV/s2048/Will+and+family.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="427" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4cCLmG_7XjBeKyNGayI0dYici8BEaxTetNkLrb3bZ6jQ8aoPTfRlRjSnjkZUhisRzsKHu49IJGwxCvsQBFffUrKiaaMEtKy07_iGgzPkzpSiUR5rt3kXBu7wuAvztm1_I1jPV/w640-h427/Will+and+family.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">“For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.” </span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: left;">- 1 Thess. 4:14<br /><br /><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><o:p><span style="font-family: times;"><i>A Gofundme <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-mary-pemberton-and-children?fbclid=IwAR2poiHFAopbpwd2RU8Syz-0GArilDqVPia-H7eBQ3x2lQM-DyjD_YbcwJ0" target="_blank">campaign</a> was organized by Will's friend John Jalsevac to create a fund to support Mary and her children in the years ahead. </i></span></o:p></p>John D. O'Brien, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14718447464911984436noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672246.post-118992258650082112020-04-11T13:55:00.000-04:002020-04-11T13:55:09.024-04:00From an Ancient Homily on Holy Saturday<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzD4KCXYdEO2XIykdPj1L7dGhtnFSlkeKztKPLQ8v70VFc0tB8qLBUXi2HOt92Ci-Ez4YNUktaeQdH3hnnhXX_kdG_zmZs96IZUgH34dgwqBJKQdUDN1Lc2L2nHm-VAsQdLUj1/s1600/DEscent+into+Hell.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzD4KCXYdEO2XIykdPj1L7dGhtnFSlkeKztKPLQ8v70VFc0tB8qLBUXi2HOt92Ci-Ez4YNUktaeQdH3hnnhXX_kdG_zmZs96IZUgH34dgwqBJKQdUDN1Lc2L2nHm-VAsQdLUj1/s1600/DEscent+into+Hell.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><br />"Something strange is happening … there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.<br /><br />He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, he who is both God and the son of Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory. At the sight of him Adam, the first man he had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: “My Lord be with you all.” Christ answered him: “And with your spirit.” He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying, “Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”<br /><br />I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. Out of love for you and for your descendants I now by my own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth, all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated.<br /><br />For your sake I, your God, become your son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave; I, whose home is above the heavens, descended to the earth and beneath the earth. For your sake, for the sake of man, I became like a man without help, free among the dead. For the sake of you, who left a garden, I was betrayed in a garden, and I was crucified in a garden.<br /><br />See on my face the spittle I received in order to restore to you the life I once breathed into you. See there the marks of the blows I received in order to refashion your warped nature in my image. On my back see the marks of the scourging I endured to remove the burden of sin that weighs upon your back. See my hands, nailed firmly to a tree, for you who once wickedly stretched out your hand to a tree.<br /><br />I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side for you who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in hell. The sword that pierced me has sheathed the sword that was turned against you.<br /><br />Rise, let us leave this place. The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise. I will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven. I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am life itself am now one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them worship you as God. The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager. The bridal chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all good things lie open. The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity."<br /><br /><br />- From an ancient homily on Holy Saturday<br /> <i>Liturgy of the Hours</i>John D. O'Brien, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14718447464911984436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672246.post-46579628996437303382019-12-19T13:46:00.000-05:002019-12-19T22:37:41.459-05:00A Remaining Christmas<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>As Christmas approaches, I try to read an essay that captures some important aspect of the great feast. One stand-out essay, by English writer Hilaire Belloc, is "A Remaining Christmas". <br /><br />Belloc, a brilliant author, a feisty apologist, Member of Parliament, and good friend of G.K. Chesterton, bought a house in 1907 called "Kings Land", in Shipley, Sussex, for which he paid £1000. It was an old English house on five acres, which also had a working windmill. He remained there the rest of his life.<br /><br />His essay is about home and belonging to a specific place and community; as such, it anticipates themes in the writing of Wendell Berry. It is also about local Christmas customs which memorialize and celebrate the permanence of eternal things. His reflection has an indelible sacramental quality. It also has a literary quality to be savoured. Like much of Belloc and Chesterton's writing, it speaks something timeless to our times.</i><br />
<br />
<h2>
A Remaining Christmas</h2>
By Hilaire Belloc<br />
<br />
THE WORLD is changing very fast, and neither exactly for the better or the worse, but for division. Our civilization is splitting more and more into two camps, and what was common to the whole of it is becoming restricted to the Christian, and soon will be restricted to the Catholic half.<br />
<br />
That is why I have called this article ‘A Remaining Christmas’. People ask themselves how much remains of this observance and of the feast and its customs. Now a concrete instance is more vivid and, in its own way, of more value than a general appreciation. So I will set down here exactly what Christmas still is in a certain house in England, how it is observed, and all the domestic rites accompanying it in their detail and warmth.<br />
<br />
This house stands low down upon clay near a little river. It is quite cut off from the towns; no one has built near it. Every cottage for a mile and more is old, with here and there a modern addition. The church of the parish (which was lost of course three and a half centuries ago, under Elizabeth) is as old as the Crusades. It is of the twelfth century. The house of which I speak is in its oldest parts of the fourteenth century at least, and perhaps earlier, but there are modern additions. One wing of it was built seventy years ago at the south end of the house, another at the north end, twenty years ago. Yet the tradition is so strong that you would not tell from the outside, and hardly from the inside, which part is old and which part is new. For, indeed, the old part itself grew up gradually, and the eleven gables of the house show up against the sky as though they were of one age, though in truth they are of every age down along all these 500 years and more.<br />
<br />
The central upper room of the house is the chapel where Mass is said, and there one sees, uncovered by any wall of plaster or brick, the original structure of the house, which is of vast oaken beams, the main supports and transverses pieces half a yard across, morticed strongly into each other centuries, and smoothed roughly with the adze. They are black with the years. The roof soars up like a high-pitched tent, and is supported by a whole fan of lesser curved oaken beams. There is but one window behind the altar. Indeed, the whole house is thus in its structure of the local and native oak, and the brick walls of it are only curtains built in between the wooden framework of that most ancient habitation.<br />
<br />
Beneath the chapel is the dining room, where there is a very large open hearth which can take huge logs and which is as old as anything in the place. Here wood only is burnt, and that wood oak.<br />
<br />
Down this room there runs a very long oaken table as dark with age almost as the beams above it, and this table has a history. It came out of one of the Oxford colleges when the Puritans looted them 300 years ago. It never got back to its original home. It passed from one family to another until at last it was purchased (in his youth and upon his marriage) by the man who now owns this house. Those who know about such things give its date as the beginning of the seventeenth century. It was made, then, while Shakespeare was still living, and while the faith of England still hung in the balance; for one cannot say that England was certain to lose her Catholicism finally till the first quarter of that century was passed. This table, roughly carved at the side, has been polished with wax since first it began to bear food for men, and now the surface shines like a slightly, very slightly, undulating sea in a calm. At night the brass candlesticks (for this house is lit with candles, as the proper light for men’s eyes) are reflected in it as in still brown water; so are the vessels of glass and of silver and of pewter, and the flagons of wine. No cloth is ever spread to hide this venerable splendour, nor, let us hope, ever will be.<br />
<br />
At one end of the house, where the largest of its many outer doors (there are several such) swings massively upon huge forged iron hinges, there is a hall, not very wide; its length is as great as the width of the house and its height very great for its width. Like the chapel, its roof soars up, steep and dark, so that from its floor (which is made of very great and heavy slabs of the local stone) one looks up to the roof-tree itself. This hall has another great wide hearth in it for the burning of oak, and there is an oaken staircase, very wide and of an easy slope, with an oaken balustrade and leading up to an open gallery above, whence you look down upon the piece. Above this gallery is a statue of Our Lady, carved in wood, uncoloured, and holding the Holy Child, and beneath her many shelves of books. This room is panelled, as are so many of the rooms of the house, but it has older panels than any of the others, and the great door of it opens on to the high road.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSEB7YLal7sRlzhH2nj_V-Ae_7xyo_UvEIy4HfZgAdUkM-D9L0GQHpY4klnhPG3Y9zi-Kfr9tW0dnXh77njuAOmTj-9iU709gphQyoqBouccUqp6bQpjmHPQRMlf-MSNLMyNSE/s1600/Belloc+-+Kings+Land+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="486" data-original-width="600" height="323" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSEB7YLal7sRlzhH2nj_V-Ae_7xyo_UvEIy4HfZgAdUkM-D9L0GQHpY4klnhPG3Y9zi-Kfr9tW0dnXh77njuAOmTj-9iU709gphQyoqBouccUqp6bQpjmHPQRMlf-MSNLMyNSE/s400/Belloc+-+Kings+Land+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"King's Land", Shipley, Sussex</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Now the way Christmas is kept in this house is this:<br />
<br />
On Christmas Eve a great quantity of holly and of laurel is brought in from the garden and from the farm (for this house has a farm of 100 acres attached to it and an oak wood of ten acres). This greenery is put up all over the house in every room just before it becomes dark on that day. Then there is brought into the hall a young pine tree, about twice the height of a man, to serve for a Christmas tree, and on this innumerable little candles are fixed, and presents for all the household and the guests and the children of the village.<br />
<br />
It is at about five o’clock that these last come into the house, and at that hour in England, at that date, it has long been quite dark; so they come into a house all illuminated with the Christmas tree shining like a cluster of many stars seen through a glass.<br />
<br />
The first thing done after the entry of these people from the village and their children (the children are in number about fifty—for this remote place keeps a good level through the generations and does not shrink or grow, but remains itself) is a common meal, where all eat and drink their fill in the offices. Then the children come in to the Christmas tree. They are each given a silver piece one by one, and one by one, their presents. After that they dance in the hall and sing songs, which have been handed down to them for I do not know how long.<br />
<br />
These songs are game-songs, and are sung to keep time with the various parts in each game, and the men and things and animals which you hear mentioned in these songs are all of that countryside. Indeed, the tradition of Christmas here is what it should be everywhere, knit into the very stuff of the place; so that I fancy the little children, when they think of Bethlehem, see it in their minds as though it were in the winter depth of England, which is as it should be.<br />
<br />
These games and songs continue for as long as they will, and then they file out past the great fire in the hearth to a small piece adjoining where a crib has been set up with images of Our Lady and St Joseph and the Holy Child, the Shepherds, and what I will call, by your leave, the Holy Animals. And here, again, tradition is so strong in this house that these figures are never new-bought, but are as old as the oldest of the children of the family, now with children of their own. On this account, the donkey has lost one of its plaster ears, and the old ox which used to be all brown is now piebald, and of the shepherds, one actually has no head. But all that is lacking is imagined. There hangs from the roof of the crib over the Holy Child a tinsel star grown rather obscure after all these years, and much too large for the place. Before this crib the children (some of them Catholic and some Protestant, for the village is mixed) sing their carols; the one they know best is the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1h707Ejx7I" target="_blank">one which begins</a>: ‘The First Good Joy that Mary had, it was the joy of One’. There are a half a dozen or so of these carols which the children here sing; and mixed with their voices is the voice of the miller (for this house has great windmill attached to it). The miller is famous in these parts for his singing, having a very deep and loud voice which is his pride. When these carols are over, all disperse, except those who are living in the house, but the older ones are not allowed to go without more good drink for their viaticum, a sustenance for Christian men.<br />
<br />
Then the people of the house, when they have dined, and their guests, with the priest who is to say Mass for them, sit up till near midnight. There is brought in a very large log of oak (you must be getting tired of oak by this time! But everything here is oaken, for the house is of the Weald). This log of oak is the Christmas or Yule log and the rule is that it must be too heavy for one man to lift; so two men come, bringing it in from outside, the master of the house and his servant. They cast it down upon the fire in the great hearth of the dining-room, and the superstition is that, if it burns all night and is found still smouldering in the morning, the home will be prosperous for the coming year.<br />
<br />
With that they all go up to the chapel and there the three night Masses are said, one after the other, and those of the household take their Communion.<br />
<br />
Next morning they sleep late, and the great Christmas dinner is at midday. It is a turkey; and plum pudding, with holly in it and everything conventional, and therefore satisfactory, is done. Crackers are pulled, the brandy is lit and poured over the pudding till the holly crackles in the flame and the curtains are drawn a moment that the flames may be seen. This Christmas feast, so great that it may be said almost to fill the day, they may reprove who will; but for my part I applaud.<br />
<br />
Now, you must not think that Christmas being over, the season and its glories are at an end, for in this house there is kept up the full custom of the Twelve Days, so that ‘Twelfth Day’, the Epiphany, still has, to its inhabitants, its full and ancient meaning as it had when Shakespeare wrote. The green is kept in its place in every room, and not a leaf of it must be moved until Epiphany morning, but on the other hand not a leaf of it must remain in the house, nor the Christmas tree either, by Epiphany evening. It is all taken out and burnt in a special little coppice reserved for these good trees which have done their Christmas duty; and now, after so many years, you might almost call it a little forest, for each tree has lived, bearing witness to the holy vitality of unbroken ritual and inherited things.<br />
<br />
In the midst of this season between Christmas and Twelfth Day comes the ceremony of the New Year, and this is how it is observed:<br />
<br />
On New Years’ Eve, at about a quarter to twelve o’clock at night, the master of the house and all that are with him go about from room to room opening every door and window, however cold the weather be, for thus, they say, the old year and its burdens can go out and leave everything new for hope and for the youth of the coming time.<br />
<br />
This also is a superstition, and of the best. Those who observe it trust that it is as old as Europe, and with roots stretching back into forgotten times.<br />
<br />
While this is going on the bells in the church hard by are ringing out the old year, and when all the windows and doors have thus been opened and left wide, all those in the house go outside, listening for the cessation of the chimes, which comes just before the turn of the year.<br />
<br />
There is an odd silence of a few minutes, and watches are consulted to make certain of the time (for this house detests wireless and has not even a telephone), and the way they know the moment of midnight is by the boom of a gun, which is fired at a town far off, but can always be heard.<br />
<br />
At that sound the bells of the church clash out suddenly in new chords, the master of the house goes back into it with a piece of stone or earth from outside, all doors are shut, and the household, all of them, rich and poor, drink a glass of wine together to salute the New Year.<br />
<br />
This, which I have just described, is not in a novel or in a play. It is real, and goes on as the ordinary habit of living men and women. I fear that set down thus in our terribly changing time it must sound very strange and, perhaps in places, grotesque, but to those who practice it, it is not only sacred, but normal, having in the whole of the complicated affair a sacramental quality and an effect of benediction: not to be despised.<br />
<br />
Indeed, modern men, who lack such things, lack sustenance, and our fathers who founded all those ritual observances were very wise.<br />
<br />
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* * * *</div>
<br />
Man has a body as well as a soul, and the whole of man, soul and body, is nourished sanely by a multiplicity of observed traditional things. Moreover, there is this great quality in the unchanging practice of Holy Seasons, that it makes explicable, tolerable, and normal what is otherwise a shocking and intolerable and even in the fullest sense, abnormal thing. I mean, the mortality of immortal men.<br />
<br />
Not only death (which shakes and rends all that is human in us, creating a monstrous separation and threatening the soul with isolation which destroys), not only death, but that accompaniment of mortality which is a perpetual series of lesser deaths and is called change, are challenged, chained, and put in their place by unaltered and successive acts of seasonable regard for loss and dereliction and mutability. The threats of despair, remorse, necessary expiation, weariness almost beyond bearing, dull repetition of things apparently fruitless, unnecessary and without meaning, estrangement, the misunderstanding of mind by mind, forgetfulness which is a false alarm, grief, and repentance, which are true ones, but of a sad company, young men perished in battle before their parents had lost vigour in age, the perils of sickness in the body and even in the mind, anxiety, honour harassed, all the bitterness of living—become part of a large business which may lead to Beatitude. For they are all connected in the memory with holy day after holy day, year by year, binding the generations together; carrying on even in this world, as it were, the life of the dead and giving corporate substance, permanence and stability, without the symbol of which (at least) the vast increasing burden of life might at last conquer us and be no longer borne.<br />
<br />
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* * * *</div>
<br />
This house where such good things are done year by year has suffered all the things that every age has suffered. It has known the sudden separation of wife and husband, the sudden fall of young men under arms who will never more come home, the scattering of the living and their precarious return, the increase and the loss of fortune, all those terrors and all those lessenings and haltings and failures of hope which make up the life of man. But its Christmas binds it to its own past and promises its future; making the house an undying thing of which those subject to mortality within it are members, sharing in its continuous survival.<br />
<br />
It is not wonderful that of such a house verse should be written. Many verses have been so written commemorating and praising this house. The last verse written of it I may quote by way of ending:<br />
<br />
<i>‘Stand thou for ever among human Houses,<br />House of the Resurrection, House of Birth;<br />House of the rooted hearts and long carouses,<br />Stand, and be famous over all the Earth.'</i><br />
<br />
- Hilaire Belloc<br />
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<br />John D. O'Brien, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14718447464911984436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672246.post-14121401870221044732018-01-13T19:47:00.001-05:002018-01-14T02:27:19.124-05:00Vocation and Discipleship<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<i>By John O'Brien, S.J.</i><br />
<br />
One of the main graces sought from the visit of the St. Francis Xavier relic to Canada is "vocations". While the word "vocation" is not itself in the Bible, the pattern of God calling individuals certainly is. There is a particular dynamic at work when this happens.<br />
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Consider the story of the calling of the first prophet, the boy Samuel, who will play such an important role in Israel. God calls him out of his sleep – an important detail often overlooked. When God’s call comes, it wakens us, alerts us, moves us from the fog of unknowing and into the clear light of knowledge and wakefulness. The call of God is thus like a good cup of coffee, instilling a bracing sense of awareness and purposefulness.<br />
<br />
Of course Samuel hears the call but does not know right away who has called him. At that time “Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.” This intriguing description should also give us pause, for it suggests the possibility of a "before" and an "after" of encounter with the Lord. It takes the mediation of the priest Eli to discern that the Lord was actually speaking, to distinguish between a genuine and a merely imagined call. Eli plays a key role in helping Samuel train to listen to the word more perfectly.<br />
<br />
A few days ago I got around to seeing the latest <i>Star Wars</i> film, “The Last Jedi”. An important part of its plot centers on the attempts of the young woman Rey to get Luke Skywalker, an older Jedi, to leave his island monastery to assist the Resistance (which can be seen as a metaphor for the Church) in its fight against galactic evil, and to help her understand her vocation as a Jedi. She has many special abilities, but requires the assistance of a master to refine them. Luke's attempt to train her mainly focuses on helping her hone her interior sensitivity to the Force, which, although tinged by a gnostic New Age spiritualism, can also be a metaphor for apprehending the Word of God. The Word, as St. John writes, existed in the beginning, it was with God and it <i>was</i> God, and the Word was that through which all things came to be. The life of the Word is everywhere.<br />
<br />
Similarly, we too can learn to tune our inner ear to the Word of God, by familiarizing ourselves with the sacred scriptures, which we call his “Word”, since the writings were inspired by the Holy Spirit. We also come to recognize the voice of the Lord when we quiet ourselves in prayer and cultivate an inner disposition of <i>receptivity</i>. This is the advice of Eli to young Samuel: “Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, 'Speak Lord, for your servant is listening'.” Samuel obeys the instruction of Eli, and the Lord “came and stood there, calling as before.” There is an immediate presence now, and the text wants us to understand that God was near when he spoke. His voice is not to be taken as an echo from the distant past, or a whisper from fathomless depths. Rather, it was the exchange between the Lord and his servant, between the Creator and his creature. Samuel responds saying “Speak, for your servant is listening”. He has begun to cultivate his inner ear, to continue the dialogue.<br />
<br />
In the “Come and See” drama of St. John's Gospel, a more developed exchange takes place. John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, points him out to his disciples. His disciples run after the Lord, sent by their former teacher to become followers of a new teacher. Discipleship means follower-ship. They walk behind him possessing only the knowledge that they have been sent. Before long, Jesus turns around and says “What are you looking for?” They cannot really put it into words, so they say “Teacher, where are you staying?” <i>Where is your home, so we can get to know you better?</i> “Come and see,” he says. It’s an invitation to accompany him, for only those who accompany will see.<br />
<br />
These passages invite us to evaluate two dimensions of our lives: our listening and our accompanying. Considering young Samuel, we might ask ourselves how familiar we are with the voice of the Lord? Do I know it when I hear it? Do I seek to familiarize myself with it through Word, Sacrament and prayer? At the end of my life, when I come before the Lord face to face, will I be meeting someone who I know well, or will he be more like a stranger I'm meeting for the first time?<br />
<br />
Considering young Andrew and John who run after the Lord, I might ask myself what is the state of my discipleship. Do I let the Lord lead me forward? Has Jesus Christ captured my curiosity and imagination? Am I interested in who he really is, where he is going, and what he might ask of me? Or do I keep a bit of a hesitant distance between us, for fear he may ask something not to my liking? These are the honest questions of honest Christians.<br />
<br />
If we look at Andrew and John, and then Peter, we see disciples who become transformed by their encounter with the Lord, so much so, that Peter gets a new name (<i>Cephas</i> – the Rock). Our encounters with the Lord, both the powerful special experiences and the steady life of regular prayer, will bring about a similar transformation. We call it <i>metanoia</i> or conversion. Our part in it is easy: to pay attention to his voice and listen to his instructions. This is the basis and precondition of vocation. Without it, vocation is just a word, a concept.<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white;">As the visit of St. Francis Xavier's relic to Canada unfolds, may the grace of vocation well up in our hearts, and may it be characterized by an increase in listening and following, of generous spirits that are open and unafraid.</span><br />
<br />John D. O'Brien, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14718447464911984436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672246.post-41983622718297370672017-12-24T20:18:00.000-05:002019-12-19T20:00:14.028-05:00Welcome to Our World<span style="font-family: "calibri";"></span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"></span><br />
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By John O'Brien, S.J.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<i>(with apologies: it's a somewhat longer homily-essay)</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">This evening we celebrate the vigil of Christmas. It is a
Mass that is different from the Midnight Mass to be observed later tonight
or the Christmas morning Mass tomorrow. All three Masses are different and have
different readings. If you are a spiritual diehard, you can attend all three and derive different intellectual and spiritual benefits; but if this
present Mass, the Vigil, is the only Christmas Mass you are attending this
year, you are fortunate to have heard one of the
significant Gospels in the Church calendar year: Matthew’s genealogy, which
ends with the dream of Joseph. You know the story: the Angel of Lord tells Joseph not to be
afraid to take Mary as his wife, for against all odds of probability, she
has conceived her child by the Holy Spirit, and that they are to name him
Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.</span></div>
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<br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Matthew, whose Gospel was written primarily for a
readership of Jewish Christians, underlines the connection of Joseph’s dream to
the prophecy of the Prophet Isaiah, who said “Look, the virgin shall conceive
and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means 'God is with us'." That the translators of the ancient prophetic texts knew that the word for young woman of the prophecy should be rendered “virgin” is an indication of their sense of what the prophecy was actually pointing to: something
almost incomprehensible, but certainly extraordinary, would happen in the fullness of time, when God and humanity were ready.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
H<span style="font-family: "calibri";">ow charged with drama this story is! How
much depended on Mary believing the angel who appeared to her; how much depended on Joseph believing the angel who spoke to him in a dream. That the
future of humanity’s redemption, according to this plan of God, rested upon the
belief and assent of these two humble persons, Mary and Joseph; that all of
Israel’s history, from the first time God spoke to Abraham, through Moses leading
the people out of slavery in Egypt, through the various captivities over
hundreds of years and the prophets who were sent to exhort and encourage: all
of this history, which we know as the Old Testament, was oriented to these two moments of decision on the part of Mary and then of Joseph. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri";">These humble children of Israel, who had listened
intently to the word of God all their lives, had become sensitive to his will
and his voice, such that they could recognize it when it came. And thus, they
were ready to be the key players in the great moment of salvation: when God-in-heaven would become God-with-us.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">There are people who struggle with the whole
history of salvation question, and ask why the incarnation of Jesus, with his subsequent rejection and passion, death
and resurrection was necessary. Why couldn’t the Divine Creator have waved his
divine hand and restored creation to its original wholeness? Why did it require the burden of
Bethlehem and of the Cross? I can understand this line of questioning, for the burden, in certain respects, falls upon us too: we are also tasked with the responsibility of cooperating with God in the ongoing work of salvation, of overcoming sin in our lives and helping restore all things to God. And sometimes that feels like work!</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">But God had one very special reason for planning salvation the way he did. Of course God could
have pointed his finger and instantly renewed creation, but he wanted it
to happen in a <i>greater</i> way. God wanted creation itself to be an actor in its
own re-creation, to be a participant in its restoration to wholeness. This particular plan can
only be understood as the act of a loving parent, for a good parent knows that inviting the child to help fix what the child had broken, ennobles and gives dignity to the child. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">My father, who is an artist, tells the story of how once, when we
were kids, he had left a painting to dry on our dining room table. This
painting was made on a kind of micro-particle board called Masonite. Masonite is exceptionally sturdy and will last forever – as long as it doesn’t get soaked, for
then the fibers will separate and the image will be ruined. That day, one of my
brothers, who at around five or six years old had a knack for both creative and accidentally
destructive activities, ran the bathtub upstairs, plugged the drains with a
cloth (for reasons unknown), and watched it spill over and flood the floor. It then proceeded to drip through the
ceiling and onto dad’s painting, which began to curl, causing the water to collect on the image. When my father
discovered his creation was ruined, he gave a cry of alarm, followed by a
veritable storm of understandable emotions. My little brother was quite
contrite, but then he and my father took a bunch of towels and gently began to
attempt to dry the painting (The painting was of The Baptism of the Lord, by the way!). In the end, hope beyond hope, the painting survived, and the
particles did not disintegrate. But most of all, my little brother was so happy
that he was able to help repair the damage he'd inadvertently caused. It
allowed him to regain his dignity, and he and my father had a special bond
after that.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">In a way, God’s plan for restoring his broken creation is similar. He wanted us to be involved in the work of repairing the damage of original sin. So Jesus Christ, the Divine Son of God, descends into our world, but at the same time, is also be fully human, fully man, a
member of the human race, of the Israelite nation, son of Mary and son of Joseph. His human nature is given him by Mary. Mary, who is daughter Zion, gives her yes representing all of Israel. Israel represents all the
nations of the earth. The nations, of course,
represent the world, which is all bound up and dependant upon this young
woman, a girl named Mary of Nazareth, who gives God his human nature.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">So on the vigil of Christmas, we give thanks to God for
inviting us to be co-participants, though Mary and Joseph, in the drama of our
redemption. It’s a logic that continues to be at play in the dramas of our own
lives and the work of our own individual salvation. God sends us the graces from above,
but we are invited to be participants, to prepare our hearts, to cultivate a listening spirit, <i>receptivity</i>, and thereby conceive within our hearts and lives nothing less
than Jesus Christ himself. When this happens, the healing of ancient hurts and wounds
takes place; the overcoming of addictions and bad habits occurs</span><span style="font-family: "calibri";">; the forgiveness
of offenses made against us, grudges that hold us captive and corrode us from
within -- they start to melt and the freedom of new life begins to spread its warmth. This leaving behind of the old man and woman, and becoming the men
and women each of us was intended to be from the beginning, to be "people of the
heart", to be adopted sons and daughters of God the Father – this is the good
news of Jesus Christ Son of God.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">What does it mean to be people of the heart? The great
saints and the best of the psychologists say the same thing: that at root, the
human heart seeks to engage in essentially three activities: it wants to hear
and be heard, it wants to see and be seen, and it wants to know and be known.
Love, both when it is given and received, always is specified in one of these
acts. Yes, the heart is something that "feels", but in the real world, the heart
wants the concreteness of hearing/seeing/knowing and being heard/seen/known. We
yearn for this. This is why God has given himself to us in the scriptures. So we can <i>hear</i> his
voice when his word is proclaimed, so we can <i>see</i> him when we imagine in our
mind’s eye his coming in the flesh, so we can <i>know</i> our God, who is revealed in his Word, revealed as John says, to be Love itself.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">As we enter into the great and holy mystery of Christmas,
let us ask ourselves how our love might better hear, better see, and better
know those whom we are called to love. How we might imitate God who forgives
his creatures their sins and their weaknesses. How we might be profoundly grateful that he has sent his Son, present
to us today in the Word of God, the Eucharist on the Altar, in the persons of the poor who are all around us, and in all persons of our families and
communities – that God is indeed “with us”, <i>Emmanuel</i>, who, as the prophet
Isaiah said in the first reading, calls us to be no more forsaken, our land no
more to be called desolate, but rather that the Lord “delights<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>in you” – just as a young man marries a young
woman, so shall your God rejoice over you!</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
Given all this, let us <span style="font-family: "calibri";">enter Christmas now with a prayer to Him who is coming
to be born among us, a welcoming of the Christ Child to our world:</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"></span><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">
</span>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Tears are falling, hearts are breaking, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">how we need to hear from God.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">You’ve been promised, we've been waiting,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Welcome Holy Child,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Welcome Holy Child. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Hope that you don’t mind our manger</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">
</span>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">How I wish we would have known</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">
</span>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">But long awaited Holy Stranger</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">
</span>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Make Yourself at home, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">please make yourself at home.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
Bring your peace into our violence</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
Bid our hungry Souls be filled.</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
Word now breaking Heaven’s silence</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
Welcome to our world, <br />
Welcome to our world. </div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
Fragile finger sent to heal us</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
Tender brow prepared for thorn</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
Tiny heart, whose blood will save us</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
Unto us is born, <br />
Unto us is born. </div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
So wrap our injured flesh around You</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
Breath our air and walk our sod</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
Rob our sin and make us holy</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
Perfect Son of God, <br />
Perfect Son of God.<br />
<br />
<br />
Welcome to our world.</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
</div>
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<div style="margin: 0px; text-align: left;">
(<i>Welcome to Our World, </i>written by Chris Rice)</div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: "calibri";"></span>John D. O'Brien, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14718447464911984436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672246.post-62606596274501566812017-12-09T19:28:00.000-05:002019-12-19T23:01:09.623-05:00Prepare the Way of the Lord<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
On this second Sunday of Advent we hear the opening lines of Mark’s Gospel. Mark is believed to have been the secretary of Peter and Paul and wrote his Gospel in the year 70 from Rome. A writer. some say, will put his most important idea in the first line of his text. Here the first line is “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, Son of God.” Mark is telling us what his whole Gospel is about: that there is something new to know, and it is profoundly good. So what is the evangelion, the good news of Jesus Christ, anyway?<br />
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The Jews experienced exile for much of their history. And now, although they were in their homeland, they were under the occupation of the Romans. Israel is waiting for a messiah to restore her to her true mission and identity of being "a light to the nations".<br />
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"A people who walked in darkness have seen a great light". Mark’s news is that Jesus Christ is the messianic figure they have been waiting for. But the enemy, says Mark, is not Caesar. Rather, there is a strange twist. John the Baptist is “preparing the way of the Lord” by preaching “a baptism of repentance”. That’s a rather odd thing to be preaching, when you are waiting for your liberator. What does repentance have to do with anything when you are the oppressed people?<br />
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Yet this is the message of this strange new Messiah: the oppression we might experience on the outside is a small thing compared to the oppression we might feel on the inside. Or put another way: we can only begin to bring about God's kingdom if we first reform ourselves. We are all exiles, in a sense, and we long to find our true homeland. Most of us feel imprisoned one way or another. We might be enslaved by our addictions, by our weaknesses, by our frustrations, by our faults. In short, we feel at times the lack of love in our life. Our true liberation will come only when we throw off the chains that hold us in bondage, and discover our true homeland that is with Jesus Christ. “The kingdom of God is within you!” he said.<br />
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John the Baptist knew we would find our freedom when we meet Jesus, but for this to happen, our hearts have to be prepared. How do we “make his paths straight”, which is to say, how do I prepare the road for him to come to me? Many of the streets in Regina, Saskatchewan, have large bumps and sudden depressions because of the cold winters that cause the earth to heave with the frost. They sometimes impede smooth travelling around town, and can even ruin the axles of cars if one hits them too fast. Our Advent task is to make smooth the roadways into our hearts for the Lord.<br />
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How do we fulfill that Advent task? It means, as Hans Urs von Balthasar has said, "we must search deep inside for that turning point in our innermost self, the place where we turn from the 'I' to the 'thou' and to God, from a sterile living for ourselves, to a fruitful and joy-filled living for others." (You Crown the Year with Your Goodness). We must accept the insistence of John the Baptist that we go to the Jordan River. We do this by praying to God with our families, reading the scriptures a little bit each day, and confessing our sins in the sacrament of reconciliation. When we do these things we are bathing in the river of mercy; thus, the same means of preparation are as available to us as they were to the people in John's time.<br />
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Today, December 10, we are exactly in the middle of two Marian feasts. Two days ago we celebrated the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Two days from now is the feast of Our Lady of Guadeloupe. It’s like we are standing in the middle of Mary’s great spirit breathing "yes" to the coming of the Lord. Mary was the first fully prepared to receive Jesus Christ, so much so, that she received him bodily in her womb, and gave him her flesh and blood. As such, she is the “mother of Advent”, the queen of hearts preparing to receive her Son. Like her, we are all empowered to become pregnant with Christ, that is to say, to carry him in ourselves and bear him to the world.<br />
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It is not complicated, but we do need to be reminded of it with frequency. We carry Jesus when we are kind to our brothers and sisters, when we love our spouses, when we bear patiently the small humiliations that happen in our lives, and turn them into opportunities for love, a superhuman act which is true power. When we turn to God each morning and each evening and say: “thank you, Lord, for the gift of life. You have given everything to me. I offer it back to you.” These are the acts that transform us into a free people. And nobody – no Caesar, no tyrant, no bully, no bad boss at work – nobody can take that away from us. For we belong to God and God belongs to us.John D. O'Brien, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14718447464911984436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672246.post-38702059169647410642017-05-11T03:00:00.000-04:002019-12-19T22:58:42.215-05:00Kurelek in Niagara FallsFor a period of six years, 1957-1963, Canadian artist William Kurelek gave himself the task of painting the story of the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Nobody, to our knowledge, had ever painting a Gospel sentence by sentence, and the finished series consisted of 160 paintings, called <i>The Passion According to Matthew</i>. A <a href="https://www.amazon.com/passion-Christ-according-St-Matthew/dp/B0006CM49M" target="_blank">book</a> was published in 1975 (now out of print), whose images I contemplated when I was growing up.<br />
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Kurelek went to the Holy Land to research the project, and painted steadily, on average completing one painting per week. The paintings would be purchased by the <a href="http://www.niagarafallsartgallery.ca/about-wk.html" target="_blank">Niagara Falls Art Gallery</a>, a small exhibition space not far from the falls, where they have remained ever since. The gallery is easy to find, but only open for certain restricted hours. I had always wanted to see the paintings, and finally made my pilgrimage last week.<br />
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The artist honoured the gallery by making a sketch of its exterior that appears the book:<br />
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Most of the major exhibition space in the gallery has now been converted to children's art programming, which evidently keeps the private gallery afloat. The magnificent collection of Kureleks are confined to a few basement rooms, which the attendants will graciously lead you to when you arrive.<br />
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Only about 40 of the 160 <i>Passion</i> paintings are on display at any given time. But they stunning. They begin with the Last Supper.<br />
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And continue with various scenes of the passion:<br />
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In addition to the Passion series, a number of Kurelek's other paintings are in the gallery, and the owners did not shy away from collecting his more powerful and disturbing works. For instance, "All Things Betray Thee Who Betrayest Thee" (1970) depicts the artist sitting up in bed struggling with depression, while a moon-illumined field of cabbages is just outside his window. One can make out a dog at the back the field. Painted just prior to his conversion, the title is a line from the poem "The Hound of Heaven" by Francis Thompson, a reference to the God who never ceases to pursue the lost soul.<br />
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What might be Kurelek's most disturbing paintings are a diptych called "Love/Hate" (1968), which shows in one panel, medical missionaries in Africa, and in the other, Viet Cong violently torturing villagers suspected of collaboration:<br />
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And "Our Mai Lai: the Massacre of Highland Creek" (1971), from Kurelek's "O Toronto" series (a variation on Christ's lament over Jerusalem). The painting shows a creek-bed in a snowy landscape, with the Scarborough Centenary Hospital in the background. Scattered everywhere are garbage bins contained little aborted bodies.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1GpcUKw-nyxoE-xPz0l2ZMuwij1KQJIlOKo4aJIDBKN8Dw3GSaNYqFwUiAw8VcaQk-ctaWVD-ce_4Q0xIbsNvZl3sXYropTbKiJsJ9s6iV7V5WziG5v0T5JrCcFuQIW4TezoE/s1600/%2522Our+My+Lai%252C+the+Massacre+of+Highland+Creek.%2522+.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1GpcUKw-nyxoE-xPz0l2ZMuwij1KQJIlOKo4aJIDBKN8Dw3GSaNYqFwUiAw8VcaQk-ctaWVD-ce_4Q0xIbsNvZl3sXYropTbKiJsJ9s6iV7V5WziG5v0T5JrCcFuQIW4TezoE/s400/%2522Our+My+Lai%252C+the+Massacre+of+Highland+Creek.%2522+.jpg" width="275" /></a></div>
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The artist wrote: "I guess it's really the strongest, and probably to some who don't agree with me on the subject of abortion, the most offensive picture. Since, however, I know that unborn babies are living human beings, I believe myself duty-bound to speak for them, because they can't speak out or defend themselves when they are being killed."<br />
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Another harrowing picture is "Nuclear Madonna". In the 1960s and 70s, with the spectre of nuclear war, Kurelek felt inclined to warn against this outcome of man's folly. Here one can see jet trails streaking in the sky above a mother and child, while other victims recline beneath a sod shelter.<br />
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Kurelek's work, which is featured in collections all over the world, including the National Art Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, and the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, ranges widely from the pastoral, the historic, the psychological and religious. At the Niagara Falls Gallery there are also some more gentle human scenes:<br />
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The gallery also features something I'd never seen before: Kurelek's homemade signs. While well-known for the homemade frames he made for almost all his paintings, the signs were a revelation:<br />
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The gallery has also recreated a replica of the artist's studio, with materials donated from the artist's widow, Jean Kurelek, before her death in 2009:<br />
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The <i>Passion According to Matthew </i>is the core of the Niagara Falls Art Gallery collection, and must be seen to be appreciated. While most of the paintings depict literal events of the narrative, for certain phrases, Kurelek had to be creative. For example, he rendered the ending of the Gospel in this way:</div>
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It's well worth visiting this <a href="http://www.niagarafallsartgallery.ca/" target="_blank">gallery</a>, as long as you make sure it is open before you plan your trip. A pilgrimage to the beautiful chapel of the <a href="https://www.carmelniagara.com/about_us" target="_blank">Carmelite monastery</a> and waterfalls nearby make for a fulsome day.</div>
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John D. O'Brien, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14718447464911984436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672246.post-78535994015361157892016-09-26T00:04:00.000-04:002020-04-25T20:37:08.697-04:00The Brebeuf Drawings of William Kurelek<div style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">One of the hidden treasures of the </span><a href="http://martyrs-shrine.com/" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;" target="_blank">Martyrs' Shrine</a><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> in Midland, Ontario, is the set of drawings by William Kurelek depicting St. Jean de Brebeuf and his companions, the 17th century Jesuits, whose gentle missionary life among the Huron or Wendat people came to a tragic end when the Huron nation was destroyed by the Iroquois in 1649, and the Jesuits abandoned the Sainte Marie mission.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Kurelek is one of Canada's iconic painters. His works hang in the National Art Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and numerous collections, private and public throughout the country. His great output covered Canadian life both urban and rural, past and present -- </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">and even future through his Dali-esque apocalypses</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">To my knowledge, there are no reproductions of the "Huronia Mission Paintings" drawings in print [except for a 1991 </span><a href="http://mellenpress.com/book/William-Kureleks-Huronia-Mission-Paintings/1637/#" style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;" target="_blank">academic monograph</a><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">]. For many years they were displayed behind glass beneath the church at the Shrine, and it was difficult to take good photographs of them. They are now hanging on display in a secure area of the retreat house. But the following give a sense of the drawings' originality. The unmistakable style of Kurelek, as well as his own personal devotion (he converted to Catholicism in 1957), are evident in the composition of persons and events.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">(Click on images to enlarge. The captions are Kurelek's own titles )</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">1. Recollet missionary in North America.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">2. Father Brebeuf setting out from Three Rivers on mission to Huronia.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAZVq316rtOg36DwZUahyphenhyphenkNfnjdNDo80qQR62JaQnahadXw6tAXNC4UIMboc2b1lFe47tOu9vSbVu56c2rWX6LDS17oZ_AeHQe4Ju-tlHmC2Tzk_6B3M6r6kCRGHoiaFqPxSjK/s1600/3+-+Brebeuf+Water+Glare.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAZVq316rtOg36DwZUahyphenhyphenkNfnjdNDo80qQR62JaQnahadXw6tAXNC4UIMboc2b1lFe47tOu9vSbVu56c2rWX6LDS17oZ_AeHQe4Ju-tlHmC2Tzk_6B3M6r6kCRGHoiaFqPxSjK/s400/3+-+Brebeuf+Water+Glare.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">3. Father Brebeuf suffers from water glare.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhithYvV_nPF6lDDrjJxGSGD5fObrZOiI9Sld1r-GfDcidvwRAiwjMIyPlMKrj0ETbtn72Bn__r0uV72UpYXJQVXPMTRGnyKm0CuuYU5h2xJNFKVCtHVgU-oQs33Io0tkT7ni6p/s1600/4+Huron+guides+maneuvering+the+rapids.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhithYvV_nPF6lDDrjJxGSGD5fObrZOiI9Sld1r-GfDcidvwRAiwjMIyPlMKrj0ETbtn72Bn__r0uV72UpYXJQVXPMTRGnyKm0CuuYU5h2xJNFKVCtHVgU-oQs33Io0tkT7ni6p/s400/4+Huron+guides+maneuvering+the+rapids.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">4. Huron guides maneuvering the rapids.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJLToESTYfyuYPgIWRMXMnLQBuulYBQ9abHDJkkTiLEnula_X3VVY4aXlaRS1slwUBKHl2fL2_b8IRaDJ6HPiO3Hw4Xy5Fzjz3AsO-VVx4QaDOXfCgGaAmwc-HqV8f7VV_KH9Q/s1600/5+Father+Brebeuf+and+guides+turning+in+during+the+voyage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJLToESTYfyuYPgIWRMXMnLQBuulYBQ9abHDJkkTiLEnula_X3VVY4aXlaRS1slwUBKHl2fL2_b8IRaDJ6HPiO3Hw4Xy5Fzjz3AsO-VVx4QaDOXfCgGaAmwc-HqV8f7VV_KH9Q/s400/5+Father+Brebeuf+and+guides+turning+in+during+the+voyage.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">5. Father Brebeuf and guides turning in during the voyage.<br />Brebeuf described his own experience of 1634 as follows: "To be sure, I was at times so weary that my body could do no more. But at the same time my soul was filled with great happiness as I realized that I was suffering this for God. No one can know this feeling unless he has experienced it."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">6. Map showing Three Rivers to Huronia Route. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Starting from</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> the St. Lawrence, up the Ottawa River, then across through Lake Nipissing and the French River, and finally south to the bottom of the Georgian Bay (click for detail).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">7. Map of the Lower Great Lakes mission area.</span><br />
<span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The land called Huronia is a relatively small but fertile region between the Georgian Bay, Lake Huron and Lake Simcoe in present-day Ontario. </span><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Huron/Wendat were unusual among native peoples in that they were primarily an agricultural nation, planting vast crops of corn, beans and squash, and fishing in the abundant waters of the nearby lakes. Other tribes, such as the Algonquin and Petun, would trade with them for food.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">8. Father Brebeuf baptizes a dying man.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">9. At the height of Huronia mission, thousands came into the Church.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">10. Iroquois ambush Father Jogues' party.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">11. Father Jogues and Rene Goupil give themselves up to be with the captive Hurons.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">12. Rene Goupil is martyred.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">13. </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Father Jogues is martyred.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">14. Jean de Lalande is martyred.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">15. Map showing Iroquois advance in the Huron mission.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">16. Fathers Brebeuf and Lalemant prepare the mission fort for the Iroquois attack.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">In 1649 a large army of Iroquois warriors was making its way north into Huronia. Though outnumbered, the Huron men decided to attempt to defend the village of St. Louis, and are depicted being blessed by a Jesuit, while another assists at evacuating the women, children and elderly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">17. They give last rites to dead and dying defenders.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">According to historians, the Hurons repelled the first assault, and then a second. But on the third assault the Iroquois broke through the palisade of stakes and took the village.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">18. After Huron dispersal, Jesuits push West and North.</span><br />
<span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Huron/Wendats had called Brebeuf “Echon”, which meant “He who carries heavy loads”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">19. Stories of Blackrobe courage travels ahead of them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">20. Even the Plains Indians welcome the Jesuits.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">After the destruction of Huronia, some Jesuits and many Huron survivors would spread Christianity across North America.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">21. And in the end even the dread Iroquois let them into their towns.</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">After a slow trial period in which a handful of Jesuits lived and worked among the Iroquois, during which 20-30 were baptized including five chiefs, in 1667 the missionaries began to serve all Five Nations of the Iroquois confederacy, and made notable converts such as the young Mohawk woman St. Kateri Tekakwitha.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Kurelek's drawings depict delicate relations between French missionaries and Huron/Wendat First Nations. The mission was extremely difficult, but through careful learning of the language and observation of customs, their efforts afforded them a tact that won them many converts and friends. Kurelek probably read this letter that Brebeuf wrote to France, offering advice to aspiring young missionaries:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">"You must love these Hurons, ransomed by the blood of the Son of God, as brothers. You must never keep the Indians waiting at the time of embarking. Carry a tinder-box or a piece of burning-glass, or both, to make fire for them during the day for smoking, and in the evening when it is necessary to camp; these little services win their hearts. Try to eat the food they offer you, and eat all you can, for you may not eat again for hours. Eat as soon as day breaks, for Indians, when on the road, eat only at the rising and the setting of the sun. Be prompt in embarking and disembarking and do not carry any water or sand into the canoe. Be the least troublesome to the Indians. Do not ask many questions; silence is golden. Bear with their imperfections, and you must try always to be and to appear cheerful. Carry with you a half-gross of awls, two or three dozen little folding knives (jambettes), a hundred or so fish-hooks, and some plain and fancy beads with which to buy fish or other </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">commodities from the nations you meet, in order to feast your Indian companions, and be sure to tell them from the outset that here is something with which to buy fish. Always carry something during the portages. Do not begin to paddle unless you intend always to paddle. The Indians will keep later that opinion of you which they have formed during the trip. Always show any other Indians you meet on the way a cheerful face and show that you readily accept the fatigues of the journey...</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Jesus Christ is our true greatness; it is he alone and his cross that should be sought in running after these people, for, if you strive for anything else, you will find naught but bodily and spiritual affliction. But having found Jesus Christ in his cross, you have found the roses in the thorns, sweetness in bitterness, all in nothing."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> - From </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">“Instructions for the Fathers of our Society who shall be sent to the Hurons”, </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Reuben G. Thwaites, ed., </span><i style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents. </span></i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Vol. 12, 118-121.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Feast Day of the Canadian Martyrs is celebrated in the Roman Catholic Church on Sept 26 in Canada (and Oct 19 in the General Calendar).</span></div>
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John D. O'Brien, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14718447464911984436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672246.post-32192803214434579292016-05-16T12:36:00.004-04:002021-08-23T16:17:11.901-04:00Ten Popular Songs that Point to the Transcendent<br />
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One of the most-viewed posts here was called <a href="http://johnobrien.blogspot.ca/2012/06/ten-secular-songs-with-religious-themes.html" target="_blank">"Ten Secular Songs with Religious Themes"</a>. Now, I'm not that person who scours the pop cultural landscape with a magnifying glass looking for oblique references to a latent Christianity. But I do believe that Christ is very much alive, and can be found in the remotest corners of humanity. Sometimes the profoundest truths are not in theology books but in the lyrics of the poets and the insights of artists.<br />
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Four years later, I'd say it's time for a sequel. The following songs have in common a certain degree of popular acclaim, although not be familiar to all readers. They are, I submit, beautiful songs that point beyond the mundane, offering glimpses of the transcendent -- that is to say, of God who is beyond this material world, while nonetheless present in this life as well. They remind us that we will one day see God "face to face", and generally reflect the key dispositions of faith, hope and love that anticipate that meeting.<br />
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First. Back in 1998 a Canadian artist with an extraordinarily powerful voice named Amanda Marshall wrote a song called "<b>I Believe in You</b>". It was about the value of having faith in someone. What I found intriguing, and still do, is that the first-person narrator remains deliberately ambiguous: is it Amanda singing to her son? To someone else? We see a whole lifetime in sequence, from a birth to a death, with all the major landmarks of a human life in between, so it seems to be almost from a divine perspective. Thus, in the end, for me it is a love song from God to each one of us.<br />
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Second. This song came out in January 2016 just after David Bowie died from cancer. A man who seemed to personify the ambiguities and angst of the past forty years, and the constant search for personal reinvention, his death struck a chord with people the world over. "<b>Lazarus</b>", his posthumous final act, is a stunningly melancholic and plaintive hymn that yearns for the transcendence that will soon come. Actually written on his deathbed, the song's lyrics have been much-discussed, but I hear a man on the threshold of encountering his Creator, taking stock of his life in an almost <i>confessional</i> way, and making a plea that despite all of his meanderings, doubts and misgivings, still has a reckless hope.<br />
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Third. Continuing the theme of the afterlife, this song from Wiz Khalifa called <b>"See You Again"</b>, was featured at the end of the adrenaline film <i>Furious 7</i>. What gives the song lift is the fact that it is an <i>in memoriam</i> to actor Paul Walker, who was accidentally killed on the set of this film. It becomes a paean to the bonds of friendship and of family. Above all, it testifies to the enduring belief that this is not the end of the story. As the title indicates, it too is suffused with the spirit of hope.</div>
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Fourth. Back in 1999 Celine Dion wrote this winsome tune called "<b>That's the Way it Is</b>", in which the beloved Quebecoise chanteuse sang about the fundamental importance of the theological virtues of faith, hope and love, and their inter-relations. Seriously. That's essentially what the song is about:<br />
<i>When you're ready to go and your heart's left in doubt / Don't give up on your faith / Love comes to those who believe it / And that's the way it is. </i>Amen.<br />
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Fifth. The Danish group Lukas Graham is climbing international charts with their pop hip-hop song about growing up and anticipating aging. While striking for its millennial vibe, "<b>7 Years</b>" is equally remarkable for its lack of cynicism and openness to the wisdom of fathers and to the true goods in life, like love, children and the gift of time. It seems wise beyond its years, while not in any way pretentious, and exudes something like joy in the midst of life's mysteries.</div>
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Sixth. Taking a break from the mainstream limelight, one might savour this casually recorded video of gospel singer Calesta Day warming up in a church somewhere. Have you heard of her? Neither had I. But turn it up and hear it through, and you will have soul-shivers all day. Called "<b>Hear My Prayer</b>", she just keeps going and going, with a range that scrapes the upper echelons of the vocal ceiling, to some baritone depths that will melt your spiritual mind.<br />
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Seventh. Ed Sheeran's song "<b>I See Fire</b>" from one of Peter Jackson's Hobbit films, has a remarkable depth of feeling that captures the textures of fraternal communion and the anticipation of shared sacrifice. It is essentially a prayer, in which he sings "calling out, father...", making the petition "I hope that you remember me". The overall theme is the willingness to lay down one's life, should it be necessary, with the comfort of camaraderie to blunt the fear, and the invocation of the mysterious "father" to be with them in their time of adversity.</div>
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Eighth. The Fray is a Denver-based rock band whose 2012 song "<b>Be Still</b>" invites comparisons to Psalm 23. <i>"When you go through the valley and shadow comes down from the hill / If morning never comes to be / Be still, be still, be still." </i>A peaceful, minimalist piece about remembering the One from whom we came, and who is the source of all being: "Be still and know I am."</div>
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Ninth. Bek O'Brien's hymn to humility and strength in trial and adversity, "<b>Lion's Den</b>" is lovely beyond words. Her jazzy folkloric sound resounds through the <a href="http://www.bekobrien.com/music/" target="_blank">entire album</a> of the same name, which contains a song-list that is infused with pathos and heartstring lyricism. I should disclose that Bek is my first cousin, but my fandom transcends bloodlines and is based upon my appreciation for her raw and undiluted musical talent. Here is a live version of "Lion's Den". If readers can find her <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/lions-den/id988442455" target="_blank">whole album</a>, they might also take a deep listen to "Pendulum" and "Doubt", among other tracks. They will not be disappointed.</div>
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Ten. Love must have the final word. Let's end on a folky vibe, and retrieve Bob Dylan's 1973 acoustic panegyric called "<b>Wedding Song</b>". It is clearly written from one spouse to another, yet might also be heard in a more layered way, of the soul to God, like the Song of Songs. This is a version by David Albion.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cyGAj7K0T8Q" width="320" youtube-src-id="cyGAj7K0T8Q"></iframe></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
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<i>A.M.D.G.</i></div>
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John D. O'Brien, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14718447464911984436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672246.post-70716843667052006962015-12-16T18:53:00.001-05:002015-12-17T21:45:04.425-05:00Andy Warhol in Toronto<div style="text-align: left;">
Today I popped into the Andy Warhol exhibit (no pun intended) on Bloor Street.</div>
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There was a very large stack of Campbell's vegetable soup cans (which were very real).</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgahwA_MqY0rlqYihBGR0A8ZwqDCnrqPXD_NpE-BPzhvjyECo-ljwXZBSdc83kIuI-2UmxBzlccZBe7NjA5U9JJV6Yn-Bbj40pTQ4mG-xouWj2JEaSNyq4w2NSrPsO13m0MtY0a/s1600/2015-12-16+16.14.31.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgahwA_MqY0rlqYihBGR0A8ZwqDCnrqPXD_NpE-BPzhvjyECo-ljwXZBSdc83kIuI-2UmxBzlccZBe7NjA5U9JJV6Yn-Bbj40pTQ4mG-xouWj2JEaSNyq4w2NSrPsO13m0MtY0a/s400/2015-12-16+16.14.31.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Then I caught Vladimir Lenin scowling at me, both in black and red.</div>
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Although separate pieces, the Gotti and Lenin I put side by side for comparison. They represent criminal minds who get popular appeal:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpdgogF16XUaCB0EQP0iad52WzKQeinRZaUgqkZoL7ovb9dl6dby78Mh0Txvly-T5KvDZuVnXhGzNCLx1QbGHMRleprE_A8IuPU2CIV92cXOcsj2Xr19JHMvIzl9e1HHm-aA2n/s1600/2015-12-16+15.58.31.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpdgogF16XUaCB0EQP0iad52WzKQeinRZaUgqkZoL7ovb9dl6dby78Mh0Txvly-T5KvDZuVnXhGzNCLx1QbGHMRleprE_A8IuPU2CIV92cXOcsj2Xr19JHMvIzl9e1HHm-aA2n/s320/2015-12-16+15.58.31.jpg" width="240" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3AC6ywZnJ-cnHe6dRqRe47yTMCQhxA-hdCqMcXIsgPv-UtjUksk1PH2zR5cxguUUuvv-UxCN-L3UXOOr_nf-OD3NCHCJEvemviATNCAbP1_X1mEAUQx6zDLsNKaraUBCqDJrr/s1600/2015-12-16+15.59.04.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3AC6ywZnJ-cnHe6dRqRe47yTMCQhxA-hdCqMcXIsgPv-UtjUksk1PH2zR5cxguUUuvv-UxCN-L3UXOOr_nf-OD3NCHCJEvemviATNCAbP1_X1mEAUQx6zDLsNKaraUBCqDJrr/s320/2015-12-16+15.59.04.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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Despite his many <a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/badcatholic/2012/10/andy-warhol-gay-and-catholic.html" target="_blank">complex struggles</a>, Warhol was practicing Catholic, of the Ruthenian rite, who would slip into church in Manhattan. This was the only religious work at the exhibit, labelled as St. Apollonia, a 3rd century martyr.</div>
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In the documentary film, I overhear Warhol being asked if he is original or not. He says "no." Confounded, the interviewer asks: "Don't you want to do something original?" He replies: "No. This is easier."</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif45fuJ3FjQrim43dQn7kP1Q_4TJLJ8ovBnHjbXpwii9xXgUXh4NQ7d-3EN_jbCfLiePeqEXza5FidmNE-MXWAvuU4Aio7B7tH_fZb2dwmH9KzCIKoCKRtp1Eboxr8i2is940Q/s1600/2015-12-16+16.07.16.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif45fuJ3FjQrim43dQn7kP1Q_4TJLJ8ovBnHjbXpwii9xXgUXh4NQ7d-3EN_jbCfLiePeqEXza5FidmNE-MXWAvuU4Aio7B7tH_fZb2dwmH9KzCIKoCKRtp1Eboxr8i2is940Q/s320/2015-12-16+16.07.16.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The well-known dollar sign print:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigXMhyphenhyphenLT6-DCWa6KEPwLZia9Wlt_cNG5YLnGkOuYZGHbzl_YdY7ikhw8YzQB17XFzSFY_cXJ6j-fcbmTcTavisHJhk84r1xA3LLFu9y3VzKPvdMGq9lvcweyw83Ej-lBUht_vH/s1600/2015-12-16+16.06.29.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigXMhyphenhyphenLT6-DCWa6KEPwLZia9Wlt_cNG5YLnGkOuYZGHbzl_YdY7ikhw8YzQB17XFzSFY_cXJ6j-fcbmTcTavisHJhk84r1xA3LLFu9y3VzKPvdMGq9lvcweyw83Ej-lBUht_vH/s400/2015-12-16+16.06.29.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
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Warhol, famously shy and withdrawn, was a bit intimidated by the charismatic athletes he did for a "major athletes" series. There was also a Gretzky print I should have captured, but here, a pop boxer of some repute:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrYarifaFA7bWOL1oqq3Pfv9N3csSjxQhWG-_nqIHISS-EiDLUNkp5cRrSJjkiuwxu6egGKzTU1w_IIrN-ZIXfeiXCkfiRoWy1fcz71J2RcbQ3taod9kBIYWNTFLsiNlAU_F8X/s1600/2015-12-16+16.05.32.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrYarifaFA7bWOL1oqq3Pfv9N3csSjxQhWG-_nqIHISS-EiDLUNkp5cRrSJjkiuwxu6egGKzTU1w_IIrN-ZIXfeiXCkfiRoWy1fcz71J2RcbQ3taod9kBIYWNTFLsiNlAU_F8X/s400/2015-12-16+16.05.32.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Her Majesty's eyes pierced me to the core:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg04sR85Vt4i6r1y8iqhRXlnfqcoor0QLv9t4N1I6MSnhNUwARDkpifX5pSHeIzzv-QnleWSfCm4yF-6mR3NpfI0pUSYq7maRGy-LYYqEYlP37-hQKQ-Mc7t7pi3KYOTZOx-Xla/s1600/2015-12-16+16.02.53.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg04sR85Vt4i6r1y8iqhRXlnfqcoor0QLv9t4N1I6MSnhNUwARDkpifX5pSHeIzzv-QnleWSfCm4yF-6mR3NpfI0pUSYq7maRGy-LYYqEYlP37-hQKQ-Mc7t7pi3KYOTZOx-Xla/s400/2015-12-16+16.02.53.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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I believe I was able to identify all the characters from this "wild west" series of screen prints:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZyhnXCySUOsw9fnRkKU5mXrZ6Z__t_-lOU1sAgiSDvNyijGx4JyHorzigVTTsma041K0UgQz0mYahqMXo_a5QqqYtrZjDFMvctCLyFCg1HM2fX9ZbXQ8CtEq7p1QWCfIcMI5k/s1600/2015-12-16+16.00.28.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZyhnXCySUOsw9fnRkKU5mXrZ6Z__t_-lOU1sAgiSDvNyijGx4JyHorzigVTTsma041K0UgQz0mYahqMXo_a5QqqYtrZjDFMvctCLyFCg1HM2fX9ZbXQ8CtEq7p1QWCfIcMI5k/s640/2015-12-16+16.00.28.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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And what is probably the most famous Warhol, the Marilyn Monroe:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggVqUV3z2JylZnF_KVLRNTEoFCYuIVWrHTNPVZ1HVcDKZEFJ8h8Xn1xBfQPDBMnEywEY5XXvLwNWA3vpt3xbajiWB0VfYjBaYqfv_rOkhF1ToWnExETF6oMJ1oPx8MydJoysYf/s1600/2015-12-16+16.00.08.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggVqUV3z2JylZnF_KVLRNTEoFCYuIVWrHTNPVZ1HVcDKZEFJ8h8Xn1xBfQPDBMnEywEY5XXvLwNWA3vpt3xbajiWB0VfYjBaYqfv_rOkhF1ToWnExETF6oMJ1oPx8MydJoysYf/s400/2015-12-16+16.00.08.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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More soup cans, this time prints on a wall.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUbD4WQW1DdoiJ-UgD6_Lr2yRPXYtbovPq40MyujUwbvWZWC43m5Ug9HpMXUCozHWrBAVLwasSsg_usmOsSvRpRXc0FrEuHhs6WQoBZZ4R7qFTMjuDlEtiM0z6RkMIBb3WCG_6/s1600/2015-12-16+16.02.24.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUbD4WQW1DdoiJ-UgD6_Lr2yRPXYtbovPq40MyujUwbvWZWC43m5Ug9HpMXUCozHWrBAVLwasSsg_usmOsSvRpRXc0FrEuHhs6WQoBZZ4R7qFTMjuDlEtiM0z6RkMIBb3WCG_6/s400/2015-12-16+16.02.24.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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The King of Pop:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHibaMwiu-_Aa_9tufzgx2OU7DAkXCHhyphenhyphenX8cJIhabplJInM2RLt-8SAeWRmU6yNo-XRYgIYrBdcQyqDcod6S8AL4O6Izs0Bh5FmJYeNFDQtnmZFJoOFhQbfXLfvzJ9KkKeLHHD/s1600/2015-12-16+15.53.08.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHibaMwiu-_Aa_9tufzgx2OU7DAkXCHhyphenhyphenX8cJIhabplJInM2RLt-8SAeWRmU6yNo-XRYgIYrBdcQyqDcod6S8AL4O6Izs0Bh5FmJYeNFDQtnmZFJoOFhQbfXLfvzJ9KkKeLHHD/s400/2015-12-16+15.53.08.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
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These things were for actually sale, not part of a pop-art exhibition. It wasn't always clear. </div>
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When Andy Warhol died, there was a memorial Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City.</div>
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The "Andy Warhol: Revisited" <a href="https://warholrevisited.com/" target="_blank">exhibition</a> opened on July 1, and will close on Dec 31. I was glad to have seen a healthy sampling of his works. He will remain an enigmatic but influential figure in the history of modern art.</div>
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John D. O'Brien, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14718447464911984436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672246.post-22061041756947345412015-10-08T05:25:00.000-04:002015-10-23T14:16:34.705-04:00It’s a Wonderful Life<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i><br /></i>
<i><br /></i>
<i>Review by John D. O'Brien S.J.</i><br />
<br />
Director: Frank Capra. 130 min., U.S.A, 1946.<br />
Starring: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell, Henry Travers<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Plot</b><br />
The townspeople of Bedford Falls are sending up prayers for George Bailey (Stewart), who is in great distress. Their prayers are heard and the angel Clarence (Travers) is assigned to come down and convince George to not commit suicide. George is a good man, who sacrificed the dreams of his youth to serve the needs of his neighbours. He gave up traveling the world and going to university, and inherited the savings and loan business from his father. Over the years he resisted the proposals of avaricious banker Mr. Potter (Barrymore) to buy out the family business. He married the lovely Mary Hatch (Reed) and had four children with her. When his Uncle Billy (Mitchell) loses $8,000 of their clients’ money, George believes he is facing ruin and that he is worth more dead than alive. Once Clarence sees he is not able to persuade George that life is worth living, he decides to show him the life in the town as if George had never existed.<br />
<br />
<b>Film History</b><br />
Nobody in Hollywood wanted the script about a man who learns what life would be like if he had never been born. But Frank Capra, fresh off his project of producing war-time documentaries, scooped it up, rewrote the screenplay, and cast Jimmy Stewart and newcomer Donna Reed. When the film opened in late 1946, however, Capra’s special project received mediocre reviews. Post-war America was in the mood for light comedy, not an existential reflection-piece. Nominated for five Academy Awards, it came home with none. So how did the film become the champion it is considered today? Probably two factors: first, within a year, Capra began receiving letters, including more than 1500 stuffed in a bag from the inmates of San Quentin Prison, which described the profound impact the film had on them. The letters kept coming from all over America for years; Capra’s film was connecting deeply with the people.<br />
<br />
Second, there was an office error that might today be called providential. In 1974, the studio accidentally forgot to renew its copyright ownership and the film passed into the public domain. Television networks saw an opportunity and began to broadcast it every year, exposing Capra’s film to new audiences (the rights are owned by NBC today). Over time, the generations have come to realize the film’s enduring, universal appeal. In 2006, it was ranked as the #1 Most Inspirational Film by the American Film Institute. The AFI also rated it the #20 Greatest Movie of All Time. Both Capra and his star Jimmy Stewart both said that of all the films they ever did, <i>It’s a Wonderful Life</i> was their favourite.<br />
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<br />
<b>Reflection</b><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“Until we realize that things might not be, we cannot realize that things are. Until we see the background of darkness we cannot admire the light as a single and created thing. As soon as we have seen that darkness, all light is lightning, sudden, blinding, and divine. Until we picture nonentity we underrate the victory of God, and can realize none of the trophies of His ancient war. It is one of the million wild jests of truth that we know nothing until we know nothing.” </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
— G.K. Chesterton</blockquote>
<br />
Ignatius has two things to say about love. First, that love ought to manifest itself in deeds rather than in words. As the saying goes, words are cheap, but actions speak volumes. How we act is a more eloquent expression of where our heart is than all the “heart-felt” beliefs we may profess ardently in our speech. I once saw a fridge magnet that said: “Everyone wants to save the world, but nobody wants to help mom do the dishes.”<br />
<br />
George Bailey is the everyman who has had to subvert his idealistic dreams to serve his town. <i>How</i> he does this is described by second point of St. Ignatius with regard to love: that love consists in a mutual sharing of goods. The lover gives and shares with the beloved what he possesses, and vice versa, the beloved shares with the lover. "So, if one has knowledge, one shares it with the one who does not possess it. The same happens if one has honours or wealth and so on." George Bailey spends his life sharing what he has with his neighbours. The Bailey Building and Loan exists to help the blue-collar workers and the newcomers to town. It invests in the community and allows immigrant families to own their own homes rather than have to rent dingy apartments from Mr. Potter.<br />
<br />
George’s generosity has become instinctual, a part of who he is. We see flashbacks to several key incidents in his life that have developed this trait: he rescued his brother Harry from drowning after he fell through some ice, he prevented a grieving pharmacist from accidentally poisoning a customer, and he saved the Building and Loan several times. George, it is not too much to say, acted out of an authentic concern for his family and for his town, sharing the “goods” of his courage, his availability, his sense of justice and the common good. This is, perhaps, the foremost point of <i>It’s a Wonderful Life</i>. What makes life wonderful, then, but the love – as described by Ignatius – exchanged between persons – the giving of ourselves and our possessions, even if they seem small and inconsequential.<br />
<br />
George, of course, does not recognize this trait, and even struggles with his decisions, as we often do. If he was aware of his generosity, it would have lessened its quality, for self-conscious generosity becomes the do-goodery that is a parody of love, and which tends to annoy rather than build up.<br />
George is entirely oblivious of the fact that he is a good man until the very end, which endears him to us. Even at the finale, it is the surprise of the discovery that captures George, which overpowers into gratitude, and restores him to joy.<br />
<br />
In the “Fourth Week” of the <i>Spiritual Exercises</i>, the retreatant contemplates the joy of the resurrection, and thereby attains a surprising new kind of love for the Lord. The resurrection was unexpected – even for the disciples who were supposed to know better. We should all be open to being surprised by God, but not without faith: “If we lose our sense of wonder, no wonders will occur among us”. Genuine faith helps us recover our sense of wonder. George Bailey found it when he realized that everything about his life had been a gift: his existence, his friendships, the impact he’d inadvertently had on others. St. Ignatius invites us to consider everything about our lives that is also a gift – namely everything. Since we are not the authors of our own existence, there is something fundamentally generous in the mere act of being alive. If we can get a glimpse of the gratuity of our existence, we get a glimpse of the nature of the Creator.<br />
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<br />
<b>Meditation Points</b><br />
Begin each prayer period with the prayer recommended by St. Ignatius. Ask God our Lord for the grace: “for an intimate knowledge of the many blessings I have received, so that, filled with gratitude, I may so love and serve God in all things.”<br />
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<ol>
<li>Bring to mind all the blessings I have received: of creation, of redemption, and of all the many special blessings. Consider how God desires to give from what he possesses. Consider what it is that I possess.</li>
<li>Bring to mind creation. A) How God dwells in all creatures, from the elements that exist in him, to the life in plants, in the sensation of animals, and in human person who has the gift of understanding. B) That God dwells in me, giving me life, sensation and intelligence. C) How I am a temple of God, created in the image and likeness of God. </li>
<li>Bring to mind all the blessings, graces and gifts that have come to me from outside myself, from above: my limited powers, justice, goodness, mercy, love, and so on, which all descend from the Creator, like rays of light from the sun, or water from a fountain. Reflect on myself and give thanks.</li>
</ol>
<br />
Finally, we may make the “Suscipe prayer”, also called <i>Take Lord, and Receive</i>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, all that I have and possess. You have given all to me. To You, O Lord, I return it. All is yours, dispose of it wholly according to your will. Give me only your love and your grace, for this is sufficient for me. Amen.</blockquote>
Close each meditation with a personal conversation with Jesus (called a “colloquium”) and an “Our Father”.<br />
<br />John D. O'Brien, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14718447464911984436noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672246.post-14752201497606721582015-09-30T23:29:00.000-04:002015-10-23T14:16:55.391-04:00Of Gods and Men<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i><br /></i>
<i>Review by John D. O'Brien, S.J.</i><br />
<br />
Director: Xavier Beauvois, 122 min., France, 2010.<br />
Starring: Lambert Wilson, Michael Lonsdale, Olivier Rabourdin<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Plot</b><br />
Based on the true story of the eight Trappist monks of the Monastery of Notre-Dame de l’Atlas, who in 1996 found themselves caught in the midst of the Algerian Civil War. The monks live a quiet life of work and prayer and friendship with the Muslim villagers of Tibhirine. Threatened by terrorist factions, they are urged to flee the country. This triggers an excruciating discernment: to leave or to stay with the people they have come to know and love.<br />
<br />
<b>Film History</b><br />
Nominated for many awards, and winning three at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, including the Grand Prize of the Jury.<br />
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<b>Spiritual Reflection</b><br />
It is rare to see a religious film of such power as Xavier Beauvois’s <i>Of Gods and Men</i>. It is not a film about the monks’ deaths, which were hailed as martyrdoms, but rather about how they lived and why they were <i>willing</i> to die. The monks were more “martyrs of charity” than martyrs due to hatred of the faith. The film explores the why this was the case.<br />
<br />
In the so-called “Third Week” of the <i>Spiritual Exercises</i> of St. Ignatius, having made the decision to reform one’s life, and the choice to follow the Lord in previous “weeks”, the retreatant’s decision is now tested. Are we willing to be remain with the Lord, even to his ignoble end? Will we follow him, through his passion, to the very foot of the cross? This is the time of ratification of our prior decision. In another sense, it’s a period of learning to see and love the Lord in a whole new light, as the suffering servant, the Lamb of God.<br />
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Of all the moments of Christ’s passion in which <i>Of Gods and of Men</i> could be placed, it is above all the Garden of Gethsemane. The monks are experiencing the anguish of an uncertain decision to be made, of the anticipation of suffering, of the demands of love, and of the pathos that this chalice contains. “Pathos” is should be said, normally means a situation in which one both desires and does not desire something and at the same time. We are asked to journey with the monks in their anguish, “keeping watch” with them for just two hours of our time, but over many days of their time. The film is a contemplative experience, one suffused with the power of human presence. Just as the monks comfort one another in fraternal solidarity, so can we comfort Christ in his agony by our decision to remain with him. Presence is a primary language of love. Those who have learned it know that many words are not needed. Loneliness is one of the greatest afflictions of our age, a major poverty in the West. The remedy is to present ourselves attentively – the gift of our presence and our time. In this way we discover the hidden face of Christ in the other.<br />
<br />
There are other themes in this film; it is also a reflection on the nature of community, authority, mission, freedom and obedience. But its greatest strength is its treatment, on a more fundamental level, of this: what does it mean to love my neighbour? Everybody in the monastery agrees that they are not called to pursue martyrdom per se. They want to respect the basic human vocation to keep and preserve one’s life. But in the face of the possibility of death, how is that fundamental law altered by Christ’s teaching that “greater love hath no man than to lays down his life for his friends”. But they are not saving lives here. What reason is there to remain at such a cost?<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
Film critic Roger Ebert did not like the monks’ decision, feeling that their martyrdom was a form of selfishness, when they still had years and talents to dispense to the world. This utilitarian approach to human love and service risking ignoring the very nature of love – its freedom to give itself – which is also the foundation of the film’s own dramatic tension. The Trappists chose to stay with the people among whom they live in the <i>here and now</i>, their immediate flesh and blood friends, the people they knew in the present time. Love is the hermeneutic key to this drama, but a messy, difficult love that is not and cannot be exercised in the abstract. We learn, in a variety of scenes, that the monks are committed to the local people. This relationship was the very reason for which they lived, and Ebert misses the point, both theologically, of course, but also, I think, aesthetically. Their decision, pretty much known to the viewer in advance, is the reason we find the film beautiful.<br />
<br />
If the “Third Week” is to meditate on the passion of Christ, this seems an odd place to consider beauty. But I think it’s the best place. For if we come to love that which is viscerally unattractive (the street person, the sick or disfigured), it’s because we have nonetheless perceived something beautiful in them. Let’s examine beauty for a moment – even the beauty of tragedy or of suffering. Aquinas described beauty simply as “id quod visum placet” (that which pleases when seen), and this film pleases us because it represents a mystery well. It conveys resplendently the mystery of God’s interaction with human freedom – which is the essence of all good drama. The film is beautiful because it has beauty’s classic qualities:<i> integrity, proportion </i>and<i> clarity,</i> but it also goes beyond them.<br />
<br />
The film’s beauty is more than just its visual presentation, although it includes that. There is an <i>integrity</i>, meaning wholeness, because there is a completeness to its illustration of the dynamic of love. There is <i>proportionality</i>, meaning right ratio between elements, a balance of the film’s constitutive parts. Although the dramatic tension is strong, the visuals and editing are serene, in a way befitting a story whose theme is the mystery of self-donation. There is little music beyond the psalm chants of the monks themselves, although there is a crescendo with the inclusion of Tchaikovsky’s <i>Swan Lake</i> in the celebrated “Last Supper” scene. The liturgical chants in the chapel scenes are fittingly solemn auditory expressions of the paschal mystery unfolding in the human story; the chants’ elegance and simplicity – sung by the actors themselves – evoke the inter-dwelling of the mundane and the sublime, where the human and divine meet in the recesses of the heart. But above all it’s the long stretches of silence that are the most eloquent, given the sobriety and sacredness of the theme. There is also a pleasing ratio between scenes which parallel episodes from the life of Christ, which I will leave to the viewer to identify. Finally, there is also a pleasing proportion between exterior views of bright landscapes and natural scenery with the dim interior scenes of the monastery, an interplay of visual richness and austerity. This brings to mind the relationship between interiority and exteriority in liturgical experience, and contributes to the film’s abiding sense of reverence.<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
The third quality, <i>clarity</i>, could be said to shine from the film’s understatement or restraint. It allows characters to make statements that illumine the story without sounding moralizing or preachy. The tension of the drama, as well as the radicality of their own vocation as monks, gives them the credibility to make spiritual insights without didacticism. Brother Luc declares philosophically to his superior, “I’m not scared of death. I am a free man”. Br. Christian’s voice-over of the letter he wrote to his family in Europe is the summit of this kind of radiant speaking. There is a equilibrium between their actual lives and their spiritual statements, their walk and their talk, which permits the film to shine forth in spiritual luminosity. In the final analysis, it is the brightness of the true martyr – the credibility of authentic Christian witness.<br />
<br />
All this might help us understand why this film is beautiful. But the final word must be on the reason we might find the “unattractive” beautiful. God entered the world, the philosophers tell us, <i>sub specie contraria</i> (in contrary appearance), in weakness and death, thereby elevating these negatives to the Positive, redeeming what was formerly worthless. Today, then, we can see beauty in all things, even the apparently “ugly”. This is why the Christian can see the face of Christ in the broken and disfigured, and why the cross is held up as perennially exquisite.<br />
<br />
If art, as Bernard Lonergan holds, is always “relevant to concrete living” and is “a fundamental element in the freedom of consciousness itself” (because we need perspective to understand our own lives), then <i>Of Gods and Men</i> impels us by its intrinsic beauty to ask how I might change or live my life according to Christian love. And it invites us to follow the Suffering One on his journey up a lonely hill.<br />
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<b><br /></b>
<b>Meditation Points</b><br />
Begin all meditations with the prayer recommended by St. Ignatius. Ask God our Lord for the grace “that all my intentions, actions, and operations may be ordered purely to his service and praise.”<br />
<br />
1.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Pray on the Last Supper (John 13-17). This is the “farewell discourse” of Jesus. Read the entire discourse, and note any three points or teachings that strike you. When you are finished reading, return to those three points and pray with each of them.<br />
2.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Pray on the Garden of Gethsemane (Matt 26: 36-56).<br />
3.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Pray on the Way of the Cross and Calvary (Matt 27: 24-54).<br />
<br />
Close each meditation with an “Our Father”.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The text of Fr. Christian's letter:</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Should it ever befall me, and it could happen today, to be a victim of the terrorism swallowing up all foreigners here, I would like my community, my church, my family, to remember that my life was given to God and to this country. That the Unique Master of all life was no stranger to this brutal departure. And that my death is the same as so many other violent ones, consigned to the apathy of oblivion. I’ve lived enough to know, I am complicit in the evil that, alas, prevails over the world and the evil that will smite me blindly. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I could never desire such a death. I could never feel gladdened that these people I love be accused randomly of my murder. I know the contempt felt for the people here, indiscriminately. And I know how Islam is distorted by a certain Islamism. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
This country, and Islam, for me are something different. They’re a body and a soul. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
My death, of course, will quickly vindicate those who call me naïve or idealistic, but they must know that I will be freed of a burning curiosity and, God willing, will immerse my gaze in the Father’s and contemplate with him his children of Islam as he sees them. This thank you which encompasses my entire life includes you, of course, friends of yesterday and today, and you too, friend of last minute, who knew not what you were doing. Yes, to you as well I address this thank you and this farewell which you envisaged. May we meet again, happy thieves in Paradise, if it pleases God the Father of us both. Amen. Insha’Allah.</blockquote>
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John D. O'Brien, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14718447464911984436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672246.post-30673431198784332162015-09-23T18:24:00.002-04:002015-09-23T22:27:00.252-04:00Il Vangelo Secondo San Mateo<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br />
</i> <i><br />
</i> <i>Review by John D. O'Brien, S.J.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">(The Gospel According to Saint Matthew)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini, 137 min., Italy, 1964.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Starring: Enrique Irazoqui, Margherita Caruso, Susanna Pasolini</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Music: Bach, Mozart, Prokofiev, Bacalov, Odetta.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Plot</span></b><br />
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</b> In the Judean countryside, Jesus begins to preach, attracting disciples and sometimes multitudes. His is stern and demanding: “I have not come to bring peace but the sword”. He is also in a hurry, constantly moving from place to place. His teachings often criticize the powers that be, which attracts the attention of the Pharisees, elders and chief priests. He is arrested, beated, tried and crucified. Afterwards he appears to his disciples and gives them instructions.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Film History</span></b><br />
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</b> Filmed in the style of Italian neo-realism, which is stark, gritty, and believed that ordinary people, rather than actors, were best suited to play characters (not any character, but the one they were <i>born to play</i>), the film was the creation of Pier Paolo Pasolini, a controversial director who made some 25 films. He was an atheist Marxist, whose personal life was chaotic (and he was murdered in mysterious circumstances), but his film saw the light after he was staying in a hotel room during a conference in Assisi. While there, he found a copy of the Gospels, and “read them straight through.” He would later say that the notion of basing a film on one of them “threw in the shade all the other ideas for work that I had in my head.” The resulting film was nominated for 3 Academy Awards, and won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival in 1964.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Spiritual Reflection</span></b><br />
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</b> What to make of Pasolini’s telling of the Gospel? This film turns our conventional notions of this story upside down. It avoids melodrama and overacting, but is direct, spare and minimalist. The actors do not look what we imagine the characters to look like (very few beards). Their speech is rendered dispassionately – uncharacteristically for Italians – without animation or expression (mostly). And the pace is somehow different: the camera dwells on faces longer than we are used to, directing our attention to their expressions, to their interiority? At other times the speed of speech is disconcerting. For example, Jesus races through the Sermon on the Mount, so fast you have to pay attention to keep up. The transitions between scenes are also abrupt, as is the unrolling of dramatic action. The angel is suddenly just there. The apostles jump off boats and follow. The leper who was disfigured is instantly healed, with a camera cut to his clean face so sudden it would be comical were it not for a sense the director <i>could have </i>used dramatic special effects, but chose to show the miracle as the Gospel tells it: “and immediately his leprosy was cleansed”. The abruptness continues through the narrative, and includes even the ending. Before we know it, the film is over. Just like that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">By being unconventional, even contrarian, in the style of his story-telling – above all in avoiding the sentimentalism and dramatic sweep of so many other Jesus movies – Pasolini’s film accomplishes a few things very well. First, it reveals the power of the words themselves. Its minimalism allows the words to take over from spectacle. We are not distracted by cinematic “interpretations” on the part of the director or actors (did he get that scene right? That’s not how I imagined that line!). It focuses our attention on the mystery of each scene and the words that capture it. The words of the Gospel are meant to be prominent: “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb 4:12).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So what do we see and hear in this Gospel? That Jesus’ message is not sugar-coated, but a revolutionary call to conversion and discipleship. His exhortations have an urgency about them while he is brimming with a kind of contemplative intensity. He calls people to repentance and to follow him. He preaches a way of life that is demanding – the Beatitudes are beautiful but not an easy recipe for living. He calls out the Pharisees in no uncertain terms. The Lord essentially presents us with a choice: to follow the way of the world and of its captivity to selfishness, or the way of dying to selfishness, and of following him under his banner of love.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is the primary invitation this week: having examined our past, it’s time to take stock of our present. What is the fundamental choice that God is offering us? To follow Christ will necessarily involve a transformation of how I have been living before. It will include a commitment of life. Do I desire this? Am I attracted, perhaps despite myself, to follow him in a certain way? Do I have the courage to face this invitation? What are the stakes? What could be the losses? What is to be gained? In short, what is Jesus actually asking of me right now?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">These are good questions to bring to our prayer this week. To truly enter into them, we can meditate on certain of his scenes and words. Again, no special effects, no overdramatizing is needed. Just words and faces, which in their understatement, hold and convey something far more powerful, more spiritual, and ultimately, more personal.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Pasolini’s film has a basic, rare quality of elemental Jesus to it. But his brand of neo-realism is not careless. There is studied composition of each shot. There is balance in the beautiful black and white chiaroscuro of each frame. There is variety to his cinematography: kinetic, moving camera, wide establishing shots of each new scene, lots of mediums and close-ups. The music is achingly beautiful and even unexpected a few times. He captures the reality of the holy land, though shot in Italy, with everyday images of donkeys, wells, people in the marketplace. Above all, it’s the beauty of the faces to which he returns, again and again.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Jesus’ ministry is a slow crescendo in tone, from a restraint early on to more animated exhortations by the end. His figure remains just beyond our grasp, and perhaps that’s how it should be. He is always more than we can contain and categorize. But is he attractive to us in some deeper way? Again, to what does he invite? This is the question to ask ourselves post-Pasolini.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Meditation Points</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">1.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Imagine the three Persons of the Trinity looking down upon the earth. See the entire span of the world, with people in it of every race and age: some birthing, living and dying. Some at peace, others at war and killing each other; some are laughing, some crying, some healthy, some sick. See it all, and then listen to it all (use your inner eyes and ears). The Trinity sees the direction that humanity is going, and makes the decision to send the Second Person as a human being. In the fullness of time, they send the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary in Nazareth… What is the state of the world today?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">2.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Read Luke 2:1-14, the nativity. Make a mental representation of the place and enter the scene. Consider a) the persons involved, each in their turn. Be present personally to them, after the birth of Jesus. b) what each of them are <i>saying</i>; c) what they are <i>doing</i> and why they are doing it. What is God doing in all of this?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">3.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Pray on John 1:35-39 or Matt 4:18-22, the calling of the apostles. Let the scene come alive and consider each phrase in turn. Don’t force your prayer, but be attentive to the word or image that might strike you in particular. How might God be calling me to discipleship?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Begin all meditations with the prayer recommended by St. Ignatius. Ask God our Lord for the grace <i>“that all my intentions, actions, and operations may be ordered purely to his service and praise.”</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And close with an “Our Father”.</span><br />
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<br />John D. O'Brien, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14718447464911984436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672246.post-31829003314108120702015-09-16T17:57:00.003-04:002015-09-16T17:57:48.165-04:00To the Wonder<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>By John D. O'Brien, S.J.</i><br />
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Director: Terrence Malick, 112 min., U.SA., 2013.<br />
Starring: Ben Affleck, Olga Kurylenko, Javier Bardem, Rachel McAdams<br />
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<b>Plot</b><br />
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Neil (Affleck) and Marina (Kurylenko) fall in love in Paris and at Mont St. Michel (called by the French “la merveille” – the wonder). Marina tells Neil that she will go with him wherever he goes, hinting that she would marry him. Although Neil is noncommittal, they return, with Marina’s young daughter Tatiana, to live in Neil’s home in suburban Oklahoma, where tensions arise in their relationship. There we learn that a Spanish-born priest, Father Quintana (Bardem), is struggling with his faith, while continuing his regular rounds of pastoral ministry. Later, Neil encounters a woman from his past (McAdams). All characters, it becomes clear, are looking for love. Some succeed at penetrating love’s veil, while for others it will remain elusive.<br />
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<b>Film History</b><br />
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<i>To the Wonder</i> was reviewed by Roger Ebert, the well-known American film reviewer, in which he wrote: “A more conventional film would have assigned a plot to these characters and made their motivations more clear. Malick, who is surely one of the most romantic and spiritual of filmmakers, appears almost naked here before his audience, a man not able to conceal the depth of his vision.” The film had captivated Ebert, who went on to write that Malick’s work had attempted “to reach beneath the surface, and find the soul in need.” This was Ebert’s last review before his death from cancer in 2013.<br />
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<b>Spiritual Reflection</b><br />
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A mere two years after his metaphysically audacious and resplendent film <i>The Tree of Life</i> divided viewers but won the Palme D’Or prize at Cannes and new cohorts of admirers, Terrence Malick made another film – only his sixth in 40 years – called <i>To the Wonder</i>. This time the critics were less effusive, as if one Malick picture per decade was quite enough, the investment of existential effort being too costly. Yet this follow-up is no less grand, and although it is without cosmic creation scenes, it manages to do what few other films can do: cause us to meditate on the questions that matter most. Where The Tree of Life asked about the origins of suffering, and the mysterious interplay of nature and grace, To the Wonder focuses on the human experience and the mystery of love – and where we have fallen short of Love’s invitations.<br />
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It begins in France, on the sandy tidal plains surrounding Mont St. Michel, where Neil (Ben Affleck) and a young Frenchwoman, Marina (Olga Kurylenko), have fallen in love and cavort in various poses of embrace and shy discovery. This is love in all its newborn glory, as Marina pays homage in one of the many voiceovers:<br />
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<i>You brought me out of the shadows …</i><br />
<i>You lifted me from the ground.</i><br />
<i>Brought me back to life.</i><br />
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The presence of the divine seems everywhere, drawing them closer to the “Love that loves us” (again, as Marina says). The scenes shift briefly to Paris, and then suddenly to suburban Oklahoma, where Marina and her daughter have gone to live with Neil. There is contrapuntal contrast between the stately beauty of Europe and the bland superstores, backyards and hydro lines of the new world, but in the hands of Malick, there is no judgment. They are merely settings for the drama that plays out in the interiority of his protagonists.<br />
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Things start to go badly in America, as something “is missing” in their relationship. Neil begins to have eyes for a former flame Jane (Rachel McAdams). Marina goes back to Paris. Then things sour between Neil and Jane, and Marina returns, this time without her daughter, who we learn has gone to live with her father. This might seem like a soap opera, were it not for the fact that there is little dialogue, and that themes emerge slowly like forms upon a canvas. We are constantly guessing at what is going on, but because it is mostly interior, we learn to comprehend from the interplay of music, facial expressions, and of the sheer physicality of the players, from whom we learn to read the “language of the body”. This is Malick at his poetic and impressionistic best.<br />
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At the centre of this meditative film is the unspoken problem of sin: there is a serpent in the garden of Neil and Marina’s relationship, an obstacle to full communion. Neil cannot ultimately commit, and is reluctant to have children or marry either woman (except a civil marriage to Marina so that she can get a green card). It is not just the absence of commitment, but his failure to realize that love must go beyond the romance and the beauty that so mesmerizes him, and requires something resembling sacrifice in order to have true depth. Marina wants to embrace this dimension, but Neil, for reasons unclear, does not. He remains aloof, as if wanting to keep his options open, or haunted by some past wounds.<br />
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Then there is the priest, Fr. Quintana, played by Javier Bardem, who is going through his own struggles in his vocation with the demands of love. He has lost the zest of his more youthful priesthood. In one voiceover he says plaintively:<br />
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“Everywhere you are present. And still I can’t see you. You’re within me. Around me. And I have no experience of you. Not as I once did. Why don’t I hold onto what I‘ve found? My heart is cold. Hard.”</blockquote>
He wanders among the people he serves, prisoners, mentally handicapped, the poor, the meth addicts living on the other side of the tracks, struggling to feel something. He is confused about the apparent absence of God in his life. Yet he is able to preach with power, despite himself. He is the reluctant prophet, and an emptied vessel. For instance, he exhorts his congregation about basic Christian truths, like the necessity of making a choice:<br />
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We wish to live inside the safety of the laws. We fear to choose. Jesus insists on choice. The one thing he condemns utterly is avoiding the choice. To choose is to commit yourself. And to commit yourself is to run the risk, is to run the risk of failure, the risk of sin, the risk of betrayal. But Jesus can deal with all of those. Forgiveness he never denies us. The man who makes a mistake can repent. But the man who hesitates, who does nothing, who buries his talent in the earth, with him he can do nothing.</blockquote>
It is a striking call against the temptation to <i>acedia</i>, the vice of indifferentism that shrugs its shoulders at taking the spiritual life seriously, preferring the apparent safety of mediocrity. Many of the desert fathers and mothers saw acedia as one of the more dangerous temptations. Fr. Quintana is probably reminding himself as much as his parishioners that to accept acedia is a fateful decision. Not to choose is actually a choice.<br />
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In many ways this is Malick’s most Catholic film. With it he passes from Heideggerian questioning of the mysteries of Being – as in <i>The Tree of Life</i> – to grappling with the concrete reality of the demands of Love, which for humans is always an incarnate Love. The vocation to love, the universal calling of all people, always has a fleshy, particular quality. We are called to love real people in real life in real time, or we are just living in the ether. And in the final analysis, Christ is to be found in the concrete demands of love.<br />
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The way out of their miasma is strongly hinted at, as the film becomes profoundly confessional -- in all the senses. To the strains of Henrik Gorecki’s <i>Symphony #3</i> (“Symphony of Sorrowful Songs”), Neil bends down on one knee, kisses Marina’s hand and asks for forgiveness. Marina literally goes to confession in another scene, and receives the body and blood of Christ. Fr. Quintana's confession takes the form of a "profession", a declaration of his belief. The human, which has never been so tenderly rendered by Malick, and the divine, come together in a sacramental dialogue and embrace. But even their confessional acts are imperfect, which is why the need for the <i>grace of forgiveness</i> remains constant in their lives.<br />
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Amidst the many poetic ruminations of the characters, is a prayer voiced by Fr. Quintana at the end of a climactic sequence of spiritual epiphany. It’s one that had this writer close to tears. Viewers may not know this, but it is both the Lorica or Breastplate of St. Patrick (“Christ before me, Christ behind me…”) and then becomes a prayer that was actually adapted from a prayer written by Cardinal Newman:<br />
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<i>Flood our souls with your spirit and life so completely that our lives may only be a reflection of yours. Shine through us. Show us how to seek you. We were made to see you.</i><br />
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It’s a prayer that acknowledges our creaturely dependence on God. It is, therefore, a humble prayer. It’s the same prayer recited daily my Mother Teresa’s sisters. It also expresses the yearning to see the Beauty, ever ancient, ever new, which will ultimately fulfill the hunger of our souls. It’s what Neil and Marina are ultimately looking for.<br />
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<b>Meditation Points </b><br />
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In the “first week” of the Spiritual Exercises, we ask God to “transform what was deformed”, that is, to seek to comprehend the unconditional love of God, and recognize our failure to respond to it. The grace to pray for, then, is knowledge of my relationship with God and sorrow for my sins – which are always a turning from God. Each point can be prayed on a separate day.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Read <b>Genesis 2:15-3:25</b>, the account of Adam and Eve in the garden. What was God’s original plan? What did our first parents do? Reflect on my own life and see parallel ways in which I have or have not responded to God’s plan.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Read <b>I Cor 13:1-7</b> on in what consists love. Where have I experienced the freedom of this kind of love in my life? How have I lived or not lived my vocation to love?<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Read <b>Luke 15:11-32</b>, the account of the Prodigal Son. How have I lived or not lived my vocation to sonship or daughtership of God? What is the father’s reaction to son’s return?<br />
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Begin all meditations this week with the Newman prayer cited above & close with an <i>Our Father.</i><br />
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John D. O'Brien, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14718447464911984436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672246.post-43275669519220760652015-09-09T23:55:00.002-04:002015-09-10T00:21:08.023-04:00Millions<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_0L-YzulNTLG3yNV_CxdAbyOQ5BIf6TvP6yxzE_-gib_6ETrXeiIEftF6SFWJayoEcPdtjGL4mrUg5_FBaFIRpjLndVnpbphnEXt6e6xKyZqCYikVYCS55ehRmQBfiHRpp4K2/s1600/millions_danny_boyle.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_0L-YzulNTLG3yNV_CxdAbyOQ5BIf6TvP6yxzE_-gib_6ETrXeiIEftF6SFWJayoEcPdtjGL4mrUg5_FBaFIRpjLndVnpbphnEXt6e6xKyZqCYikVYCS55ehRmQBfiHRpp4K2/s320/millions_danny_boyle.jpeg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<i><br />
</i> <i><br />
</i> <i><br />
</i> <i>By John D. O'Brien, S.J.</i><br />
<i><br />
</i> Director: Danny Boyle, 98 min., U.K., 2004.<br />
Starring: Alex Etel, James Nesbitt, Daisy Donovan<br />
<br />
<b>Plot</b><br />
<b><br />
</b> The UK is about to switch its currency from Pounds to Euros, giving some criminals a chance to rob a train loaded with banknotes destined for incineration. During the robbery, one of the bags falls onto playhouse belonging to Damian, a young boy who talks to saints. Damian then starts seeing what the world and the people around him are made of. Ethics, being human, and the soul all come to the forefront in this film. It asks us to consider our basic interior dispositions as we enter into our own film-based spiritual journey this Fall.<br />
<br />
<b>Film History</b><br />
<b><br />
</b> Premiered at TIFF. Won a number of film awards, including “Best Screenplay” at the British Independent Film Awards. Proved that Danny Boyle cannot be pigeon-holed as a director. He has made compelling films about Scottish heroin addicts (<i>Trainspotting</i>), mad zombies (<i>28 Days Later</i>), and a game-show contestant in Mumbai (Oscar-winning <i>Slumdog Millionaire</i>). But <i>Millions</i> comes from the heart, and goes in a tender, spiritual direction that surpasses them all.<br />
<br />
<b>Spiritual Reflection</b><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<u>Anthony</u>: What did you bring a thousand pounds to school for? Can't you see that's suspicious?<br />
<u>Damian</u>: It's not suspicious, it's unusual.</blockquote>
Catherine Doherty once said: “Lord, give me the heart of a child, and the awesome courage to live it out as an adult.”<br />
<br />
What does it mean to have “the heart of a child”? It’s a question that vexed Nicodemus after Jesus said “Nobody can see the Kingdom of God without being born from above.” Obviously, we can’t re-enter our mothers’ wombs. But there is something inside all of us that yearns for some of the dispositions, that is, the interior attitudes and states of being of our childhood, long before we become anxious, informed, and ironic adults. At the same time we are probably not eager to return to many childish ways. So in what sense are we to recover “the heart of a child” without losing the proper maturity into which we have grown?<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
The film <i>Millions</i> manages to capture some of the traits that this “rebirth” is pointing to, and these are especially important to consider at the dawn of a “film-retreat”. At the beginning of his retreat manual, the <i>Spiritual Exercises</i>, St. Ignatius of Loyola makes the following point: “It will be very profitable for the one who is to go through the Exercises to enter upon them with magnanimity (bigheartedness) and generosity toward his Creator and Lord.” He goes on to encourage the retreatant to “offer God his entire will and liberty, that His Divine Majesty may dispose of him and all he possesses according to His most holy will.” There was no soft-pedaling around a spiritual parkland with St. Ignatius. He wanted everyone to encounter the living God and, like so many of Jesus’ encounters in the Gospels, to be transformed by that encounter.<br />
<br />
So how do we have “magnaminity” and “generosity”, and offer to God our will and freedom? Even this self-offering is a grace, but we can dispose ourselves to receiving the grace by cultivating certain interior attitudes in ourselves. There are three qualities that the main character in <i>Millions</i>, 9-year old Damian, seems to have in a particularly generous dose. They aren’t his only qualities, and nor is he a perfect saint, but they are spiritually foundational, important dispositions: his guilelessness (authenticity), his compassion, and his trust. Let’s consider in of these in turn, and see how cultivating these attitudes in ourselves will serve us well, as we prepare to dispose ourselves to the graces we hope to receive from this year’s “Finding God in the Dark” film series.<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
Damian believes it is his mission to use the bag of cash for good, and here we see a certain authenticity of soul. We might recall what the Lord said about his soon-to-be-called disciple Nathanael as he was walking toward him: “Behold, indeed, an Israelite in whom there is no guile” (John 1:47). Some translations also say no “duplicity” or “deceit”. The point is that to be a “true Israelite”, which meant to be a follower of the one true God, you were someone who did not live according to double-standards, or harbour hidden agendas, but basically lived in the light (“in truth”). You practiced no double-speak, no withering sarcasm, and no passive-aggressivity. Your yes meant yes and your no meant no. You wept when you were sad and you laughed when you were happy. This is the meaning of guilelessness. There is a purity about one’s conduct and speech. Children are often adorable because of their guilelessness. We know that with them “what we see is what we get”. Because they haven’t learned to conceal their thoughts and feelings, they are something of an open book when it comes to their inner life, and most of time, we find this refreshing (of course at other times, like during emotional meltdowns, less so). Often, the great enterprise of spiritual direction is simply about getting help in recovering our child-like transparency and freedom, to be “re-born” as it were.<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
Needless to say, one cannot merely go about saying whatever pops into our heads. Being a blabber-mouth is not true guilelessness or transparency in the Christian sense. In fact, we would quickly lose friends if we spoke without filters. Our thoughts and words, while having a healthy spontaneity, should also be governed by something objective, something other than ourselves. In Damian, we see this second quality at work: he is compassionate, thoughtfully so. His charity rules his spontaneity. He’s a kind-hearted kid, who wants to use his windfall to help others. Children seem to have a natural compassion, whether it’s tears over an injured animal or for a fellow child who is upset. They tend to feel the pain of others in ways that many adults have lost touch with, due to the hardening we accrue from self-protection and personal sin. This, too, is the “heart of a child” that we aspire to recover.<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
The third disposition is the attitude of trust. This perhaps is the most important disposition of all. In almost all the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ miracles and healings, he calls out this aspect of the person, afterwards saying things like: “Go, your faith has saved you.” It’s this “fundamental” that the Lord asks of everyone he meets. In fact, he can do no wonders in their midst, if they lack it. Before embarking on a spiritual journey, then, we need to have, at a minimum, the conviction that God is good and is therefore worthy of our trust. Unfortunately, many people are afraid of God – and not in the holy sense of fear (“reverence”), but an unholy fear that translates into fearful avoidance. But God is good and worthy of our trust. Thérèse of Lisieux, a doctor of the Church, wrote in her autobiography that: “Sanctity does not consist in these or those exercises and achievements; it consists in a disposition of the heart which allows us to remain small and humble in the arms of God, knowing our weakness and trusting to the point of rashness in his Fatherly goodness.”<br />
<br />
<i>Trusting to the point of rashness in his Fatherly goodness.</i> It’s the basis of the spiritual life, the one thing necessary. Damian never loses his belief that God is good, and that people are also good. He is guileless (transparent), compassionate (charitable), and trusting (faith-full). As we contemplate the overall character of this film, it will prompt us to prayerfully reflect on our own lives, our own character. In the weeks to come, you are invited to take these reflections home and pray over the meditation points at the end, perhaps staying with just one point per day. When you pray, read the passage then use your spiritual imagination and re-create the scenes. What do you see? What do you hear? What do you sense? What insights do you receive? Journal these afterwards if that is helpful to you.<br />
<br />
May we pray with the intention of disposing ourselves to becoming more receptive to the graces the good God wishes to give us during the films to come. And while we may find God in the dark, it is certain that God will find us there.<br />
<br />
<b>Meditation Points</b><br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>Consider the passage of John 1:43-51. In what areas of my life do I experience the freedom of guilelessness that Jesus is referring to when he sees Nathanael coming towards him?</li>
<li>In John’s epistle the author writes that “God is love”. Read John 4:7-12, and reflect on the essentially compassionate nature of God. How do I dispose myself to love God by loving others in my life? </li>
<li>Read Mark 5:25-34, the story of the woman healed of her flow of blood. In what does Jesus say consists the healing? Where are my growth-points in “trusting to the point of rashness in his Fatherly goodness”?</li>
</ol>
<br />
<br />
Begin all meditations with the prayer of Catherine Doherty: “Lord, give me the heart of a child, and the awesome courage to live it out as an adult.”<br />
<br />
And close with an “Our Father”.<br />
<br />
<br />
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John D. O'Brien, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14718447464911984436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672246.post-90578492024974377742015-08-28T15:34:00.004-04:002021-08-23T22:49:43.665-04:00MillionsMillions<br />
Director: Danny Boyle, 98 min., U.K., 2004.<br />
Starring: Alex Etel, James Nesbitt, Daisy Donovan<br />
<br />
Plot<br />
The UK is about to switch its currency from Pounds to Euros, giving some criminals a chance to rob a train loaded with banknotes destined for incineration. During the robbery, one of the bags falls onto playhouse belonging to Damian, a young boy who talks to saints. Damian then starts seeing what the world and the people around him are made of. Ethics, being human, and the soul all come to the forefront in this film. It asks us to consider our basic interior dispositions as we enter into our own film-based spiritual journey this Fall.<br />
<br />
Film History<br />
Premiered at TIFF. Won a number of film awards, including “Best Screenplay” at the British Independent Film Awards. Proved that Danny Boyle cannot be pigeon-holed as a director. He has made compelling films about Scottish heroin addicts (Trainspotting), zombies (28 Days Later), and a game-show contestant in Mumbai (Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire). But Millions comes from the heart, and goes in a tender, spiritual direction that surpasses them all. <br />
<br />
Spiritual Reflection<br />
Anthony: What did you bring a thousand pounds to school for? Can't you see that's suspicious?<br />
Damian: It's not suspicious, it's unusual.<br />
<br />
Catherine Doherty once said: “Lord, give me the heart of a child, and the awesome courage to live it out as an adult.”<br />
What does it mean to have “the heart of a child”? It’s a question that vexed Nicodemus after Jesus said “Nobody can see the Kingdom of God without being born from above.” Obviously, we can’t re-enter our mothers’ wombs. But there is something inside all of us that yearns for some of the dispositions, that is, the interior attitudes and states of being of our childhood, long before we become anxious, informed, and ironic adults. At the same time we are probably not eager to return to many childish ways. So in what sense are we to recover “the heart of a child” without losing the proper maturity into which we have grown?<div><br />
The film Millions manages to capture some of the traits that this “rebirth” is pointing to, and these are especially important to consider at the dawn of a “film-retreat”. At the beginning of his retreat manual, the Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius of Loyola makes the following point: “It will be very profitable for the one who is to go through the Exercises to enter upon them with magnanimity (bigheartedness) and generosity toward his Creator and Lord.” He goes on to encourage the retreatant to “offer God his entire will and liberty, that His Divine Majesty may dispose of him and all he possesses according to His most holy will.” There was no soft-pedaling around a spiritual parkland with St. Ignatius. He wanted everyone to encounter the living God and, like so many of Jesus’ encounters in the Gospels, to be transformed by that encounter.</div><div><br />
So how do we have “magnaminity” and “generosity”, and offer to God our will and freedom? Even this self-offering is a grace, but we can dispose ourselves to receiving the grace by cultivating certain interior attitudes in ourselves. There are three qualities that the main character in Millions, 9-year old Damian, seems to have in a particularly generous dose. They aren’t his only qualities, and nor is he a perfect saint, but they are spiritually foundational, important dispositions: his guilelessness (authenticity), his compassion, and his trust. Let’s consider in of these in turn, and see how cultivating these attitudes in ourselves will serve us well, as we prepare to dispose ourselves to the graces we hope to receive from this year’s “Finding God in the Dark” film series.</div><div><br />
Damian believes it is his mission to use the bag of cash for good, and here we see a certain authenticity of soul. We might recall what the Lord said about his soon-to-be-called disciple Nathanael as he was walking toward him: “Behold, indeed, an Israelite in whom there is no guile” (John 1:47). Some translations also say no “duplicity” or “deceit”. The point is that to be a “true Israelite”, which meant to be a follower of the one true God, you were someone who did not live according to double-standards, or harbour hidden agendas, but basically lived in the light (“in truth”). You practiced no double-speak, no withering sarcasm, and no passive-aggressivity. Your yes meant yes and your no meant no. You wept when you were sad and you laughed when you were happy. This is the meaning of guilelessness. There is a purity about one’s conduct and speech. Children are often adorable because of their guilelessness. We know that with them “what we see is what we get”. Because they haven’t learned to conceal their thoughts and feelings, they are something of an open book when it comes to their inner life, and most of time, we find this refreshing (of course at other times, like during emotional meltdowns, less so). Often, the great enterprise of spiritual direction is simply about getting help in recovering our child-like transparency and freedom, to be “re-born” as it were. </div><div><br />
Needless to say, one cannot merely go about saying whatever pops into our heads. Being a blabber-mouth is not true guilelessness or transparency in the Christian sense. In fact, we would quickly lose friends if we spoke without filters. Our thoughts and words, while having a healthy spontaneity, should also be governed by something objective, something other than ourselves. In Damian, we see this second quality at work: he is compassionate, thoughtfully so. His charity rules his spontaneity. He’s a kind-hearted kid, who wants to use his windfall to help others. Children seem to have a natural compassion, whether it’s tears over an injured animal or for a fellow child who is upset. They tend to feel the pain of others in ways that many adults have lost touch with, due to the hardening we accrue from self-protection and personal sin. This, too, is the “heart of a child” that we aspire to recover. </div><div><br />
The third disposition is the attitude of trust. This perhaps is the most important disposition of all. In almost all the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ miracles and healings, he calls out this aspect of the person, afterwards saying things like: “Go, your faith has saved you.” It’s this “fundamental” that the Lord asks of everyone he meets. In fact, he can do no wonders in their midst, if they lack it. Before embarking on a spiritual journey, then, we need to have, at a minimum, the conviction that God is good and is therefore worthy of our trust. Unfortunately, many people are afraid of God – and not in the holy sense of fear (“reverence”), but an unholy fear that translates into fearful avoidance. But God is good and worthy of our trust. Thérèse of Lisieux, a doctor of the Church, wrote in her autobiography that: “Sanctity does not consist in these or those exercises and achievements; it consists in a disposition of the heart which allows us to remain small and humble in the arms of God, knowing our weakness and trusting to the point of rashness in his Fatherly goodness.” </div><div><br />
Trusting to the point of rashness in his Fatherly goodness. It’s the basis of the spiritual life, the one thing necessary. Damian never loses his belief that God is good, and that people are also good. He is guileless (transparent), compassionate (charitable), and trusting (faith-full). As we contemplate the overall character of this film, it will prompt us to prayerfully reflect on our own lives, our own character. In the weeks to come, you are invited to take these reflections home and pray over the meditation points at the end, perhaps staying with just one point per day. When you pray, read the passage then use your spiritual imagination and re-create the scenes. What do you see? What do you hear? What do you sense? What insights do you receive? Journal these afterwards if that is helpful to you.<br />
May we pray with the intention of disposing ourselves to becoming more receptive to the graces the good God wishes to give us during the films to come. And while we may find God in the dark, it is certain that God will find us there. <br />
<br />
Meditation Points<br />
1. Consider the passage of John 1:43-51. In what areas of my life do I experience the freedom of guilelessness that Jesus is referring to when he sees Nathanael coming towards him? <br />
2. In John’s epistle the author writes that “God is love”. Read John 4:7-12, and reflect on the essentially compassionate nature of God. How do I dispose myself to love God by loving others in my life? <br />
3. Read Mark 5:25-34, the story of the woman healed of her flow of blood. In what does Jesus say consists the healing? Where are my growth-points in “trusting to the point of rashness in his Fatherly goodness”?<br />
<br />
Begin all meditations with the prayer of Catherine Doherty: “Lord, give me the heart of a child, and the awesome courage to live it out as an adult.”<br />
<br />
And close with an “Our Father”.<br />
<br />
The reflections from Finding God in the Dark film series are posted at the blog Veritas Liberabit: johnobrien.blogspot.ca</div>John D. O'Brien, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14718447464911984436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672246.post-70194893214930801452015-03-28T17:39:00.003-04:002015-03-28T17:40:40.470-04:00Lord of the World revisited for Holy Week<i>By John O'Brien, S.J.</i><br />
<br />
Many in the media have <span id="goog_639297147"></span><a href="http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2015/02/03/the-popes-dystopian-reading-material/" target="_blank">noticed</a><span id="goog_639297151"></span><span id="goog_639297152"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_639297148"></span> that Pope Francis has, on several occasions, referred of a novel which he recommends to readers across the globe. It might be considered a strange choice for a pope whose public image is that of a progressivist who is shattering traditions and heralding a bright new world future. The book is a 1907 futuristic apocalypse by Robert Hugh Benson called <i><a href="http://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=lord+of+the+world" target="_blank">Lord of the World</a></i>. Some have called it prophetic in its portrayal of a dystopian post-modern future. My father has cited it as a major influence on his own <i>Children of the Last Days</i> <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Father-Elijah-Apocalypse-Michael-OBrien/dp/0898706904/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1427576934&sr=1-2" target="_blank">novels</a>. Others, such as journalist John Allen, Jr., have <a href="http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2015/01/25/apocalyptic-beliefs-may-explain-why-francis-is-a-pope-in-a-hurry/?s_campaign=crux:rss?s_campaign=crux:email:ja" target="_blank">speculated</a> that this endorsement may indicate the Holy Father is thinking that his own time might be short.<br />
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<br />
I am not going to review the novel here, but rather quote a remarkable selection from its third chapter. The passage describes an experience that its protagonist, the English priest Percy Franklin, has when he enters into prayer as storm clouds gather around the world. It makes for good reading as Holy Week begins and our own liturgical and mystical summit approaches. It's worth reading in full:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Percy stood motionless until he heard the automatic bell outside tell him that Father Francis was really gone, then he went out himself and turned towards the long passage leading to the Cathedral. As he passed out through the sacristy he heard far in front the murmur of an organ, and on coming through into the chapel used as a parish church he perceived that Vespers were not yet over in the great choir. He came straight down the aisle, turned to the right, crossed the centre and knelt down. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
It was drawing on towards sunset, and the huge dark place was lighted here and there by patches of ruddy London light that lay on the gorgeous marble and gildings finished at last by a wealthy convert. In front of him rose up the choir, with a line of white surpliced and furred canons on either side, and the vast baldachino in the midst, beneath which burned the six lights as they had burned day by day for more than a century; behind that again lay the high line of the apse-choir with the dim, window-pierced vault above where Christ reigned in majesty. He let his eyes wander round for a few moments before beginning his deliberate prayer, drinking in the glory of the place, listening to the thunderous chorus, the peal of the organ, and the thin mellow voice of the priest. There on the left shone the refracted glow of the lamps that burned before the Lord in the Sacrament, on the right a dozen candles winked here and there at the foot of the gaunt images, high overhead hung the gigantic cross with that lean, emaciated Poor Man Who called all who looked on Him to the embraces of a God. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Then he hid his face in his hands, drew a couple of long breaths, and set to work. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
He began, as his custom was in mental prayer, by a deliberate act of self-exclusion from the world of sense. Under the image of sinking beneath a surface he forced himself downwards and inwards, till the peal of the organ, the shuffle of footsteps, the rigidity of the chair-back beneath his wrists--all seemed apart and external, and he was left a single person with a beating heart, an intellect that suggested image after image, and emotions that were too languid to stir themselves. Then he made his second descent, renounced all that he possessed and was, and became conscious that even the body was left behind, and that his mind and heart, awed by the Presence in which they found themselves, clung close and obedient to the will which was their lord and protector. He drew another long breath, or two, as he felt that Presence surge about him; he repeated a few mechanical words, and sank to that peace which follows the relinquishment of thought. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
There he rested for a while. Far above him sounded the ecstatic music, the cry of trumpets and the shrilling of the flutes; but they were as insignificant street-noises to one who was falling asleep. He was within the veil of things now, beyond the barriers of sense and reflection, in that secret place to which he had learned the road by endless effort, in that strange region where realities are evident, where perceptions go to and fro with the swiftness of light, where the swaying will catches now this, now that act, moulds it and speeds it; where all things meet, where truth is known and handled and tasted, where God Immanent is one with God Transcendent, where the meaning of the external world is evident through its inner side, and the Church and its mysteries are seen from within a haze of glory. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
So he lay a few moments, absorbing and resting. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Then he aroused himself to consciousness and began to speak. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Lord, I am here, and Thou art here. I know Thee. There is nothing else but Thou and I.... I lay this all in Thy hands--Thy apostate priest, Thy people, the world, and myself. I spread it before Thee--I spread it before Thee." </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
He paused, poised in the act, till all of which he thought lay like a plain before a peak.<br />
... "Myself, Lord -- there but for Thy grace should I be going, in darkness and misery. It is Thou Who dost preserve me. Maintain and finish Thy work within my soul. Let me not falter for one instant. If thou withdraw Thy hand I fall into utter nothingness."</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
So his soul stood a moment, with outstretched appealing hands, helpless and confident. Then the will flickered in self-consciousness, and he repeated acts of faith, hope and love to steady it. Then he drew another long breath, feeling the Presence tingle and shake about him, and began again. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Lord; look on Thy people. Many are falling from Thee. <i>Ne in aeternum</i><i>irascaris nobis. Ne in aeternum irascaris nobis</i> .... I unite myself with all saints and angels and Mary Queen of Heaven; look on them and me, and hear us. <i>Emitte lucem tuam et veritatem tuam</i>. Thy light and Thy truth! Lay not on us heavier burdens than we can bear. Lord, why dost Thou not speak!" </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
He writhed himself forward in a passion of expectant desire, hearing his muscles crack in the effort. Once more he relaxed himself; and the swift play of wordless acts began which he knew to be the very heart of prayer. The eyes of his soul flew hither and thither, from Calvary to heaven and back again to the tossing troubled earth. He saw Christ dying of desolation while the earth rocked and groaned; Christ reigning as a priest upon His Throne in robes of light, Christ patient and inexorably silent within the Sacramental species; and to each in turn he directed the eyes of the Eternal Father.... </blockquote>
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Then he waited for communications, and they came, so soft and delicate, passing like shadows, that his will sweated blood and tears in the effort to catch and fix them and correspond.... </blockquote>
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He saw the Body Mystical in its agony, strained over the world as on a cross, silent with pain; he saw this and that nerve wrenched and twisted, till pain presented it to himself as under the guise of flashes of colour; he saw the life-blood drop by drop run down from His head and hands and feet. The world was gathered mocking and good-humoured beneath. <i>"He saved others: Himself He cannot save.... Let Christ come down from the Cross and we will believe."</i> Far away behind bushes and in holes of the ground the friends of Jesus peeped and sobbed; Mary herself was silent, pierced by seven swords; the disciple whom He loved had no words of comfort. </blockquote>
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He saw, too, how no word would be spoken from heaven; the angels themselves were bidden to put sword into sheath, and wait on the eternal patience of God, for the agony was hardly yet begun; there were a thousand horrors yet before the end could come, that final sum of crucifixion.... He must wait and watch, content to stand there and do nothing; and the Resurrection must seem to him no more than a dreamed-of hope. There was the Sabbath yet to come, while the Body Mystical must lie in its sepulchre cut off from light, and even the dignity of the Cross must be withdrawn and the knowledge that Jesus lived. That inner world, to which by long effort he had learned the way, was all alight with agony; it was bitter as brine, it was of that pale luminosity that is the utmost product of pain, it hummed in his ears with a note that rose to a scream ... it pressed upon him, penetrated him, stretched him as on a rack.... And with that his will grew sick and nerveless.</blockquote>
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"Lord! I cannot bear it!" he moaned... </blockquote>
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In an instant he was back again, drawing long breaths of misery. He passed his tongue over his lips, and opened his eyes on the darkening apse before him. The organ was silent now, and the choir was gone, and the lights out. The sunset colour, too, had faded from the walls, and grim cold faces looked down on him from wall and vault. He was back again on the surface of life; the vision had melted; he scarcely knew what it was that he had seen.</blockquote>
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- From Robert Hugh Benson's <i>Lord of the World</i> (1907)<br />
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John D. O'Brien, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14718447464911984436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672246.post-4442645121534687332015-03-11T23:54:00.003-04:002015-03-14T17:43:02.219-04:00The Tree of Life<i>By John O'Brien, S.J.</i><br />
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2011. Director: Terrence Malick, 139 min. U.S.A.<br />
Stars: Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain, Sean Penn<br />
Music: makes use of many different classical and operatic pieces.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Plot</span><br />
An impressionistic portrait of a young family in Waco, Texas in 1956, in which the eldest son Jack (Hunter McCracken) struggles with his loss of innocence and coming to terms with two “ways” in life: the way of “grace”, represented by his luminous mother, Mrs. O’Brien (Jessica Chastain) and the way of “nature”, the win-at-all-costs philosophy represented by his father (Brad Pitt). There is a flash-forward to 1968, when his mother receives a telegram telling of the death of her other son (presumably in Vietnam), and a flash-forward to present day, where we see an adult Jack (Sean Penn) grapple with the memories of his childhood and the legacy of his choices; and to scenes at a mysterious seashore in an eschatological future, where the child and adult Jack interact with his parents, and where we sense the reconciliation of all things awaits.<br />
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A visually resplendent film, which asks core existential questions, and audaciously includes a lengthy cosmic creation scene, provoking the viewer to begin asking the same questions as Malick is asking.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Film History</span><br />
Winner of the Palme d’Or Prize, the highest award for a film, at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. Nominated for 3 Academy Awards in 2012, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Cinematography.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Spiritual Reflection</span><br />
To understand <i>The Tree of Life</i> it helps to know that director Terrence Malick has created a film in the apocalyptic genre, especially as the term was understood by earlier generations of Christians. An “apocalypse” is not so much concerned about depicting the events of the literal end of time. Rather it is concerned with the breaking through of the eternal into the temporal, of the spiritual into the material, and of the ultimate meaning of all things, which yes, will be fully revealed at the end of time, but which is also present in the “here and now”. Since the paradox of “already and not yet” informs our understanding of the redemption of creation, we see that there are multiple layers of meaning to this story.<br />
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Malick has grappled with the question of “nature” in his films before, and it’s an issue that resonates with us moderns, who also struggle with understanding the cosmos we live in. On the one hand for Malick, nature is the realm of tranquility, beauty, and wonder, almost the habitation of the divine. At the same time it has a Darwinian dimension, especially manifest in the destructive encroachments of human beings. He asks plaintively, where does all this achingly beautiful glory come from? And at the same time, why this eruption of violence and cruelty?<br />
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He poses the question in a sort of binary way in <i>The Tree of Life</i>, through the voice of the mother: “The nuns taught us there were two ways through life - the way of nature and the way of grace. You have to choose which one you'll follow.” Yet, as the film reveals, these are not necessarily two separate and irreconcilable paths. There is never any paths of “pure nature”, nor any “pure grace”, but the two work together, as Thomas Aquinas said: “Gratia non tollit, sed perficit naturam”. Grace does not destroy or negate the laws of the natural world. Rather, grace sanctifies, renews, ennobles and elevates nature. In the film, however, “nature” is short-hand for the world without God, a world that fights on its own strength and laws alone, and “grace” means that same world, transformed by God’s love.<br />
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As to the other question – from where comes the evil in the world? – it’s an age-old philosophical (and personal) question, and there are no easy answers. Indeed the question of “theodicy” – how can a good God let evil things happen – remains a valid question probably until the end of time. The great poets and saints, artists and writers are the ones who help us come to terms with it, to catch glimpses of the meaning behind suffering. Malick’s film deserves to be in their august company. He builds upon the tradition of the wisdom literature, with a particular allusion to Job at the start of the film. On a black slide we see the words:<br />
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“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” – Job 38:4,7</blockquote>
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With this God is posing a question, but it’s also an answer to a previous question from Job. Job has been stripped of everything he owned, his children killed and his body riddled with disease. His accusers invite him to curse the God that he loves or admit that it’s due to a sin that he did not commit in order to make sense of the situation. He posed the question "why?" to God, and God responded with his own unexpected, greater question, one that will burst all bounds. God does not wish to give a purely conceptual answer to Job's question, but invites him to view the larger context in which the problem can be seen. Just as it is hard for us to understand God's response to Job, it may not be easy for us to understand Malick’s depiction. There is much meaning that can only be unpacked and decoded over time. We see through mirrors dimly. But God would have us know that his ultimate plan was one that had music and great joy.<br />
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Another hermeneutic hint comes in the very first image of the film: there we see a mysterious, flame-like orb of light, and we hear the voice of the adult Jack whisper:<br />
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“Brother, Mother, it was they who led me to your door.” </blockquote>
If he is addressing his brother and mother, who are the “they” that led him and to what door? We see the orb of light standing at the origin of the “creation of the world” and reappears again at the very end as the final image in the film. If this flame of light represents the Alpha and the Omega, then it's seems probable Jack is not addressing his brother and mother, but is <i>praying</i> to God, saying that his brother and his mother were the ones who led him to the threshold of heaven. Since most of the film is a reflection by the adult Jack upon his family, and the role that grace and loss has played in his life, this interpretation makes sense, and then turns the entire film into Jack's prayer. It is Jack we see at the film's end, taking the elevator down from his glass and steel tower, through a door in the wilderness, and onto the shore of timelessness.<br />
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<i>The Tree of Life</i> divided critics. It’s overwhelming. It’s sometimes confusing. But Terrence Malick at least had the audacity to ask the most important questions of all, and put them in a film that would startle and provoke his audience. It does not offer cheap answers, but points, I believe, to the source of all knowing, the living Light that shines from the beginning and will continue until the end which is not an end.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Questions</span><br />
1) I am born with a “nature” and all my natural faculties. How has grace been operative from “within” my nature, to elevate and sanctify me?<br />
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2) The mystery of suffering is never too far from human life. How does Malick offer the glimmers of a response to the question of why a good God could allow suffering? Does he have an answer?<br />
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3) The final scenes of the film take place on a mysterious shore. What is this place?<br />
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<br />John D. O'Brien, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14718447464911984436noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672246.post-91747775604820622732015-03-04T23:13:00.001-05:002019-12-19T19:58:20.054-05:00Calvary<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<i>By John O'Brien, S.J.</i></div>
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2014. Director: John Michael McDonaugh, 102 min. Ireland/U.K.</div>
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Stars: Brendan Gleeson, Chris O’Dowd, Kelly Reilly, Marie-Josée Croze</div>
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Music: Patrick Cassidy</div>
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An anonymous man in the confessional tells Father James (Brendan Gleeson) that he was abused by a priest who's now dead, and so he's going to kill him in one week instead -- not because Fr. James is a bad priest, but because he's a <i>good</i> priest. Fr. James spends the next week reaching out to members of his small-town Irish parish, attempting to help them in their various scurrilous moral problems, and to comfort Fiona (Kelly Reilly), his fragile daughter. The days go by quickly, and he feels sinister and troubling forces closing in. He begins to wonder if he will have the strength to face his own personal Calvary at the week's end.</div>
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This film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2014, and Brendan Gleeson won Best Actor at the British Independent Film awards that year. <i>Calvary</i><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> </span>also took most of the major awards at the Irish Film and Television awards, and appeared at the Toronto International Film Festival.</div>
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Like its namesake mountain, <i>Calvary</i><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> </span>is equal parts desolation and inspiration. The film manages to show both the horror of clerical abuse and <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">what a priest </span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">ought</i><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> to be like</span>, and portrays the fall-out of the scandals which, along with post-modern indifferentism, have left Ireland a rather bleak spiritual landscape. It is not an easy film to watch, and will stick in your craw long after it's been seen. Why should anyone be interested in a movie like this?</div>
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Well we are undergoing a great Lent in the Church, a time for examination and repentance. Sometimes we can look at stories that depict the grimness of depravity to appreciate the hope of the redemption. At first glance there is little vindication in this film. But it has been justly celebrated for a reason: a redemptive threads run subtly throughout the whole sordid conflict. We need to practice seeing the lines of hope, and here the darkness serves to highlight the presence of light. Let’s consider a few of these threads.</div>
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First, Father James is a priest who, despite his personal flaws (he is no Bing Crosby padre), genuinely cares for his parish. He meets a cuckolded butcher who may have beaten his cheating wife, he confronts the same wife and her so-called boyfriend, he rows out to the island belonging to an American writer who needs company, and he puts up with the sneers and insults of the local bartender, a wisecracking male prostitute, an atheist doctor, and a pompous, degenerate rich man. This is a priest who, as Pope Francis has promoted, “has the smell of his sheep”, even if these sheep have an odor that is particularly ripe. If it’s not Christocentric love that drives Father James, there is nothing else that could motivate a man to minister to this motley group. He is the father of prodigals, even if the sons and daughters remain largely unrepentant.</div>
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The level of cynicism on the part of the townspeople is chilling. Although laced with occasional droplets of dark Irish humour, the parish is more like a collection of characters in Dante’s <i>Inferno</i>, figures better suited to a dark and tragic morality play. If Father James is supposed to represent Christ to them, then he is the Christ of Pilate’s praetorium or the via dolorosa, failed and stumbling amid the taunts and jeers of the crowd. Thus, the film is also a passion play, with the full mysterious power of the Paschal Mystery coursing like an electric current.<br />
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How is this story redemptive? “Suffering,” the French Jesuit theologian Jean Danielou once wrote, “is the only meeting point between good and evil, and the only chance for the evil ones to be saved by the innocent.” The crosses that Father James carries will bear fruit, and are even already bearing fruit, but this is hinted at obliquely, and will not be revealed to him directly. He must follow his Master <i>all</i> the way.</div>
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Yet Father James is not completely alone in his way of the cross. There are two women who stand out as lights: Fiona, who has not been emotionally well since the death of her mother several years before, has sought him out from London (Fr. James is a widower). Their conversations throughout the week reveal a growing level of healing between father and daughter, a reconciliation that will have an important effect at the film’s end. The other is a Frenchwoman named Teresa (played by Canadian actress Marie-Josée Croze), who has just lost her husband in a car accident and talks to Father James at the airport when he is tempted to flee his task. She gives one of the most poignant lines in the film, a key perhaps to interior freedom:</div>
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<u>Father James</u>: He was a good man, your husband?<br />
<u>Teresa</u>: Yes. He was a good man. We had a very good life together. We loved each other very much. And now... he has gone. And that is not unfair. That is just what happened. But many people don't live good lives. They don't feel love. That is why it's unfair. I feel sorry for them.</blockquote>
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Her attitude, at once grief and gratitude, allows her to see the world with eyes of compassion, so that her primary sorrow is for the plight of the loveless. In that moment, she unwittingly encourages him to stay the hard course of pastoral love.</div>
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Martyrdom is back in the news these days. After the execution of 21 Egyptian Christians by ISIS in Libya, a Coptic bishop <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/21/bishop-angaelos-forgives-isis_n_6725726.html?1424540239" target="_blank">told CNN</a> that the only option for them was forgiveness. He said “We don't forgive the act because the act is heinous. But we do forgive the killers from the depths of our hearts. Otherwise, we would become consumed by anger and hatred. It becomes a spiral of violence that has no place in this world.”<br />
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But there is also a place for justice, both in the human realm, and certainly in the cosmic. "The arc of moral universe is long," said Martin Luther King, "but it bends toward justice." There can be no cheap grace.</div>
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Father James is an innocent victim, and his would-be killer, although wrong to take vengeance in this way, is the victim of an awful violation. The victim does not <i>have</i> to pay forward the violence; there are other paths to healing, so he is not absolved from what he is going to do. Yet this is how things will come to pass. Father James does not know if he will die on Sunday, and like Christ in Gethsemane, does not want this “martyrdom”. Sometimes the innocent must pay the blood-libel of the guilty.</div>
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The real word that <i>Calvary</i> gives us is that God does not hold back on pursuing lost souls to the darkest and bitterest end. Here, the only way for God to reach through the mad pain of violation by a shepherd, is for a shepherd to become a lamb of sacrifice. Thus Calvary rises within the larger horizon of resurrection, and becomes a living word of mercy.</div>
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John D. O'Brien, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14718447464911984436noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672246.post-31806823415197905812015-02-26T00:19:00.002-05:002019-12-19T19:58:06.488-05:00The Incredibles<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<i>By John O'Brien, S.J.</i></div>
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2004. Director: Brad Bird (animated). 115 min.</div>
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Music: Michael Giacchino</div>
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Bob Parr (a.k.a. Mr. Incredible), and his wife Helen (a.k.a. Elastigirl), are famous crime-fighting superheroes in Metroville, saving lives and battling evil on a daily basis. But after the civilian population begins to resent their overachieving antics, they have been forced to adopt civilian identities and retreat to the suburbs where, 15 years later, they live a "normal life" with their three children Violet, Dash and baby Jack-Jack. Itching to get back into action, Bob gets his chance when a mysterious message summons him to a remote island for a secret assignment. He soon discovers that it will take a super family effort to rescue the world from total destruction. </div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In Film History </span></div>
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<i>The Incredibles</i> is part of the Pixar juggernaut of uber-successful animated films that towered over Disney (until being bought by The Mouse in 2006), titles such as <i>Finding Nemo, Toy Story, Ratatouille, </i>and<i> Up</i>. It won two Oscars (Best Animated Film of the Year, Sound editing) and “Movie of the Year” at the American Film Institute (AFI) in 2005.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Reflection </span></div>
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<i>The Incredibles</i> is one of those animated films that is enjoyable by adult and child alike. It is carried by delightful storytelling, enriched by a surprising density of plot, as well as vivid characterizations. It also takes its PG rating seriously (all other Pixar films are rated G), depicting family dysfunction and crisis unflinchingly, if sympathetically, and, in a Pixar first, has human villains attempting to kill human heroes, including their children. It’s cartoon violence, of course, but the film surprises by how it draws not only our excitement, but also the fibers of our heartstrings. It taps into personal territory with issues such as repressed talents and unfulfilled potential, soul-draining days jobs, midlife crisis, <span style="line-height: 150%;">adolescent insecurity</span><span style="line-height: 150%;"> and nostalgia for real heroes. It packs in social commentary on issues such as the dangers of praising mediocrity, of the law-suit trigger-happy culture, and even the risks of marital infidelity. All of these critiques are in the service of a higher truth: the affirmation of the inherent dignity of human life. “Valuing life is not a weakness,” one character defiantly declares, “and disregarding it is not strength!” </span></div>
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So what is the theme that makes this film a candidate for a series on "the hidden roots of love"? A clue may be found in one of its subtle story details. While a plane is whizzing towards a secret island, we can read on the control that the island’s name is “Nomanisan”. Blink and you miss the pun, but it gives us a major key to understanding what <i>The Incredibles</i> is about. Every character is grappling with the use and non-use and proper use of their talents; they go through the great, purifying tests that elevate the practice of their gifts, and help them mature past individualism.</div>
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Let’s take each character in turn. Mr. Incredible or “Bob Parr” starts the movie mugging for the “camera” like a celebrity, a man clearly in the prime of his life and at the height of his career. His opening exploits in the city confirm that his powers are being used for the civic good, but at the same time, his attitude is slightly off-key. He struts around with his chest puffed out, and violently rejects a young fan who wants to be his side-kick, an error that will sow his darkest challenges to come. Mr. Incredible is primarily incredible on the scale of muscle-power; but he is Superman without Superman’s humility (although he still has our sympathy, because he is fundamentally good, and <i>very much like us</i>). Later, his soul-destroying job as an insurance claims processor wonderfully illustrates the spiritual miasma of repressed talents and mismatched vocation. His office cubicle is a lonely island in an endless sea of isolated islands.</div>
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Elastigirl, or “Helen Parr” seems more content with the family’s hidden role in the suburbs. Her super-talent of stretching her body like a curvaceous Gumby remains restricted to breaking up acrobatic fights between her unruly children. If she is frustrated by the restriction of her special powers, she doesn’t show it. But there is a growing edge to her voice and in her demeanor towards her husband and family that increases as time goes by. While she remains the heart of the Parr family home, she, too, is feeling the effects of her family’s subdued life.</div>
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The eldest daughter Violet has the powers of projecting some kind of force-field and making herself invisible, which she does when it helps her avoid awkward social situations. She’s afflicted with angst over fitting in, once telling Helen: “Normal? ... What does anyone in this family know about normal?…We act normal, mother. I want to <i>be</i> normal.” A typical teenager, perhaps, as she struggles to discover and claim her emerging identity. She is also is pointing her finger at the truth of the family’s double-standard.</div>
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Dash, the younger brother, chafes under the orders he’s been given not to use his power of lightening-fast speed. He, too, just wants to fit in at school, and be able to compete athletically with his peers, even promising to hold back a little to make the races legit. Dash is acting out at school, pulling pranks on his teachers, getting sent to the principal’s office. He has been told his powers are not something to be ashamed of, but he is definitely not supposed to use them. He finds the contradiction unbearable. </div>
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The Parr family is afflicted by a case of <i>hiddentalentitis</i>. They’ve had to bury their gifts, hide their “lights” under proverbial bushel baskets. They are denying the full flourishing and exercise of their abilities. It is frustrating for all of them, whether they are fully aware of it or not, with each unhappy in his or her own way. Perhaps they should never have gone underground, and resisted the government’s resettlement program for superheroes.</div>
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Or maybe it was all for the good. Perhaps the discipline of self-denial has, in a strange, roundabout way, been purifying these past 15 years, like a long Lenten journey in the desert. The risk for the powerful is not just that they might become villains (like “Syndrome”, the main baddie in this film, who is clearly abusing the powers he has seized for himself); rather, the risk is the subtle corruption of intentionality, in a way that keeps the exterior shiny-clean and commendable, while inner motives get corroded and tinged by the ego. As T.S. Eliot writes in <i>Murder in the Cathedral</i>: “The last act is the greatest treason. To do the right deed for the wrong reason.” </div>
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According to Ignatius of Loyola, all the gifts we are given, even the ones we help cultivate ourselves, not ultimately for our well-being alone, but to be shared. Every grace given contains within it a mission. “Love,” he writes in the <i>Spiritual Exercises</i>, “gives of what it possesses”, even if the only thing I have is knowledge. Knowledge is redeemed, even elevated and expanded, when I share it with others. One might say that our talents don’t ever acquire their full function until they are deployed in altruistic (the inner attitude) gift to others (the outer action). Talent achieves its form only when it is given away in selflessly generosity.</div>
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It’s entirely appropriate that a family is the “theatre” in which the characters dramatically learn to mature their use of their talents. <span style="line-height: 150%;">A family is the first school of love, where members discover how to serve and be served, to love and be loved. </span><span style="line-height: 150%;">As John Paul II once <a href="http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_exh_19811122_familiaris-consortio.html" target="_blank">wrote</a>, “The family finds in the plan of God the Creator and Redeemer not only its identity, what it is, but also its mission, what it can and should do… Each family finds within itself a summons that cannot be ignored and that specifies both its dignity and responsibility: family, become what you are!”</span><br />
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The Incredibles are an indeed an “super” family, with a gross excess of talent. But it is their humanity and weakness that draw us to them in sympathy. There is no perfect family in the real world, but the Parrs model for us how every family, every community, that is built upon human relationship, can learn to orient its love both ad intra and ad extra. In the end, every family that is founded upon love is incredible.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Meditation Questions</span></div>
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1)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>What are some gifts or talents that I have been given?</div>
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2)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>When I exercise my talents, what are my main driving motives in using them?</div>
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3)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>How have my motives been examined in the past? How might they need to be purified in the present? How do I verify whether I am motivated authentically by love?</div>
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St. Ignatius suggests a prayer to begin one's meditation: </div>
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“Lord, I ask for the grace that all of my intentions, actions, and operations might be purely ordered to the service and praise of your divine majesty.” </div>
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John D. O'Brien, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14718447464911984436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672246.post-31094302604926739312015-02-05T11:55:00.002-05:002016-02-03T09:48:51.676-05:00Groundhog Day: It's a Doozy<i>By John O'Brien, S.J.</i><br />
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1993. Director: Harold Ramis. 100 min.<br />
Actors: Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, Chris Elliott<br />
Music: George Fenton<br />
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“Well, what if there is no tomorrow? There wasn't one today.”<br />
– Phil, <i>Groundhog Day</i></blockquote>
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<b>Phil</b> Connors (Murray) is a self-absorbed weatherman at a Pittsburgh television station, who feels he is destined for much greater things, and disdains his co-workers and, especially, the annual February 2 road-trip to Punxsutawney to cover the prognostications of its famous groundhog. This year, he goes with a new producer, <b>Rita</b> (MacDowell), and <b>Larry</b> (Elliott) the cameraman, making no bones about his unhappiness. They cover the event, and he goes to bed.<br />
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The next morning, he wakes to hear the same jingle and talk-show banter on his bedside radio he heard the morning before. Initially believing he is experiencing an acute case of déjà vu, Phil soon discovers he is actually reliving Groundhog Day. And it happens again and again, with the calendar resetting each time he goes to sleep. It doesn't take long for him to realize that his actions have no long-term consequences. He beings a series of selfish experiments, experiencing exhilarating highs and despairing lows. Mostly he has discovered that he can accumulate knowledge about other people, especially about the beautiful Rita, knowledge he can use to help others or to take advantage of them.<br />
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<i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107048/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank">Groundhog Day</a></i> won prizes at some second-tier festivals when it came out in 1993, but was not nominated for any major awards. Over time, it slowly gained recognition, and in 2006, the National Film Preservation Board selected it for special preservation status in the National Film Registry. It is now officially a cult favourite -- mostly, I argue, because of its underlying message of the meaning of happiness.<br />
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<b>Phil</b>: I'm a god.</div>
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<b>Rita</b>: You're God?</div>
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<b>Phil</b>: I'm a god. I'm not “the” God... I don't think. </div>
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<i>Groundhog Day</i> is a comedy about what constitutes genuine human fulfillment. In its fantastical scenario, we get to explore a) what are the qualities of “the good life”, and b) what are the qualities of “a good person”. When Phil realizes he is living in a recurring loop, he goes through a number of phases: hedonistic, despondent, altruistic, and, finally, the discovery of his true self. These phases mirror trends in every human life, even those of us not experiencing a repeating Groundhog Day. Do some people live only constrained by the rule of law or social conventions? Many of us would never discover our innate selfishness unless, like the children in <i>Lord of the Flies,</i> we find ourselves in a situation without law. But most people do discover the freedom of genuinely living for others. What <i>Groundhog Day</i> excels at showing is how, if given enough chances, a person would eventually come to see that living according to the moral law is the best ticket to human happiness.<br />
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It's a lesson we tend to learn over and over. Most of our human follies are due to forgetfulness. We forget the costs of our heedless actions: the severity of the hangover, the bitter feelings left after angry words, the emptiness of impure relationships. We sin again mostly because of two things: our human tendency to “concupiscence” (the inordinate desire to possess) and the “irascible” (the passions). Eventually, if we lived long enough, we would figure out how to live the authentic “good life” by learning to regulate our passions with reason and right judgment. For most of us, it is the work of a lifetime.<br />
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The ancient Greek philosophers considered all this millennia ago, and today’s psychology (and much spirituality!) writers mainly just play variations on their insights. Aristotle argued that the man who possesses "excellent character" is a man who does the right thing at the right time and in the right way. The proper regulation of one’s bodily appetites is an example of character excellence or <i>virtue</i>. The highest goal for the Greeks was "living well" – or <i>eudaimonia</i>, a word often translated as well-being, happiness or human flourishing. Aristotle said that virtuous activity was enjoyable for the man of virtue. He believed that the person whose appetites are in right order actually takes pleasure in acting moderately.<br />
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How does one arrive at virtue? Aristotle considered the four “cardinal virtues”, which are concerned with the pursuit of right-ordered action: <i>prudence, justice, temperance </i>and<i> courage</i>. Prudence was the virtue that governs and guides all the others. All the moral virtues, however, require one other, like a well-functioning family. Aristotle also emphasized that the virtues all aim at what is truly <i>beautiful</i> (kalos), since right action, or “the good”, is always linked to love, “the beautiful”. And in the end, it is beauty that will save the life of Phil Connors.<br />
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“At the back of our brains, there is a forgotten blaze or burst of astonishment at our own existence,” wrote G.K. Chesterton in his <i>Autobiography</i>. “The object of the artistic and spiritual life is to dig for this submerged sense of wonder.” Perhaps Phil’s experience of repeating February 2 over and over again is an aesthetic experience designed by the Divine Artist. Perhaps it is a "spiritual exercise" (of the First Week, for those Ignatians out there!) that he must undergo in order to be purified of his selfish dross, to find his true identity in God, and discover authentic spiritual freedom.<br />
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Finally, it might not be too extreme to consider the events of <i>Groundhog Day</i> in light of the Catholic notion of purgatory. Purgatory, whether it be the refining experiences during our earthly lives, or the purifying experience before the gaze of God on the threshold of heaven, is ultimately an act of mercy. Phil must experience a purification in order to be capable of genuine, human love. Thus <i>Groundhog Day</i> comes as a gift. It was too unexpected to be anything other than grace.<br />
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John D. O'Brien, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14718447464911984436noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672246.post-25353602302573208332015-01-29T16:15:00.003-05:002019-12-19T19:58:32.639-05:00The Island (Ostrov)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>By John O'Brien, S.J.</i><br />
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2006, Director: Pavel Lungin. 112 min.<br />
Actors: <a href="http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2010/05/sermon-of-pyotr-mamonov-star-of-ostrov.html" target="_blank">Pyotr Mamonov</a>, Viktor Sukhorukov, Dmitriy Dyuzhev<br />
Music: Vladimir Martynov<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Plot</span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN_tEiJc3s9nICMsS_B86UaGyUc2JnIHktZ8AwEIx0vAPpqOLExveE38k3_6hyphenhyphenchbusBSXGYbi5E00wBqWzsqftVdRoibIZ3McHUVNlf5lwwziX2I6s7i6Cp6zc6axuikvWMnB/s1600/l_147412_0851577_a061b148.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN_tEiJc3s9nICMsS_B86UaGyUc2JnIHktZ8AwEIx0vAPpqOLExveE38k3_6hyphenhyphenchbusBSXGYbi5E00wBqWzsqftVdRoibIZ3McHUVNlf5lwwziX2I6s7i6Cp6zc6axuikvWMnB/s1600/l_147412_0851577_a061b148.jpg" width="224" /></a>During World War Two, a worker on a Russian coal barge, <b>Anatoly</b> (Mamonov), is given the choice by Nazi boarders to either shoot his captain, <b>Tikhon</b>, and have the chance to live, or be shot alongside him. Anatoly chooses the first option, and then falls overboard as the Germans scuttle the boat. Three decades later (in 1976), Anatoly is living an ascetic life at a monastery on an island. He lives in a boiler house, and spends his time wheeling coal from the wrecked boat to feed the furnaces that warm the monastic houses. He walks the island saying The Jesus Prayer (“Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner”) and asking Tikhon to pray for his soul. The monks tolerate his presence, despite his habit of pulling “pranks”, unpredictable acts that unnerve them. Anatoly, it is clear, is something of a “holy fool”, and also appears to have gifts, such as the ability to heal, predict the future, and exorcise demons; diverse people come to the island seeking him out. Some of the monks, such as <b>Father Job</b> (Dyuzhev), struggle with envy, and resentment at Anatoly’s antics, while the superior, <b>Father Filaret </b>(Sukhorukov), though bewildered, is inspired to try to overcome his own inordinate attachments.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Film History </span><br />
Winner: Best Film, Best Actor, Best Director, Best Sound, Best Supporting Actor, Best Cinematographer at the Nika Awards (the "Russian Oscars") in 2007. Also nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, 2007. Closed the Venice Film Festival in 2007.<br />
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<i>The Island</i> can justifiably be compared to any work by Tarkovsky or Bergman.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Spiritual Reflection</span><br />
<i>The Island</i> is a strange movie with a surprising capacity to arrest us in spiritual ways. It lingers on in the imagination long after the closing credits. This is usually a sign that a film has inner depths that may not be available to us entirely at the conscious level, but has nonetheless managed to speak to our spirit. Russian filmmakers are particularly good at this.<br />
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What is the point of this story of a guilt-laden Orthodox brother who apparently “wastes” his life atoning and mourning an ancient mistake? The sorrow and penance seems disproportionate to the crime. Surely he has confessed his “sin”, committed under extreme wartime pressure, and found redemption, especially at a holy place like the monastery? To our modern sensibility, Anatoly seems obsessed in an unhealthy way with his sin. Get over it! God is merciful! You have confessed your sin: go, and sin no more!<br />
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But <i>The Island</i> does not offer this scenario. Instead, we have a man who has embraced a life of atonement, “whose sin”, as the psalm says, “is always before him.” He does not wish to simply let it go. He does not reject God’s mercy, but nor does he presume he has received it. Rather, he continuously begs for it, both for himself and for others. He is, indeed, a strange sort of Christian. We get the sense that he has a role to play in the world, perhaps bearing an odd vocation, an unusual prophetic mission, but it’s hard to get a handle on it. He reminds us of the more outlandish of the Old Testament prophets, like locust and honey-eating John the Baptist, a wild-man clothed in camel-skin, who by his very strangeness and urgency, has a message that rings as loud and pure as a clarion call.<br />
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Moreover, he might remind us of Ezekiel, whose mission of calling Israel to return to God went unheeded, forcing him to make ever more exagerated signs. The Lord asks Ezekiel to lie on his side in full view of the people for <i>more than a year</i>. During that time he has a dietary prescription: “And you, take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt, and put them into a single vessel, and make bread of them” (Ez 4:9). So far, not so bad. Whole grains are healthy, aren’t they? But wait, the Lord continues: “And you shall eat it as a barley cake, baking it in their sight on human dung.” <i>Human dung</i>. For over a year, Ezekiel must cook his food on burning human feces. Perhaps Ezekiel was crazy for agreeing to be God’s prophet. But God was so exasperated by his people, we infer, that he was desperate to get their attention (although, we should note, God relents somewhat about the human feces bit, and allows Ezekiel to burn cow dung).<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
To understand Anatoly in <i>The Island</i>, we might see his calling in the same prophetic vein, like certain saints such as Francis of Assisi, whose countrymen also thought him out of his mind. And, in a certain sense, Francis was. He embraced contagious lepers, talked to animals, danced and sang like a madman. Yet he also performs miraculous deeds, founds the largest religious order ever seen, reforms the papacy, nearly reconverts the world of Islam, and reboots the Christian world. Francis was God-intoxicated, saturated with God, and had a powerful effect on nearly all of western civilization.<br />
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Anatoly's life, by contrast, is more hidden. And there may be another dimension to his life than just "holy tomfoolery". He carries his guilt through it all, as if he has glimpsed, in a profound way, his own sinfulness as an objective fact, grasped how much he and he alone <i>owns</i> his sinfulness, and perhaps has even seen his place among the eternally lost. He may have realized – in the final analysis – that he does not then “deserve” anything, has no inherent “right” to anything, other than his sin. In fact, his sense of sin, extreme as it may seem, could actually be part of his spiritual mission. As we see, his gifts of clairvoyance and healing, which are linked to his humility, bring about great good in the lives of others.<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
The film director, Pavel Lungin, has said he doesn't regard Anatoly as being clever or spiritual, but blessed “in the sense that he is an exposed nerve, which connects to the pains of this world. His absolute power is a reaction to the pain of those people who come to it.”<br />
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Yet, “typically, when the miracle happens, the lay people asking for a miracle are always dissatisfied” because “the world does not tolerate domestic miracles.” They want a magical result, while God is just asking for simple faith, which is confounding. Dmitry Sobolev, the screenwriter, explains: “When a person asks for something from God, he is often wrong because God has a better understanding of what a person wants at that moment.” God wants us to ask for things, but he also wants us to trust him. We have to be ready to accept the answer.<br />
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This casts light on the unusual role that Anatoly’s poor and apparently wasted life may have played in the grander scheme. His brand of sanctity may consist in allowing the pain of his guilt to meet the pain of others in a direct and salvific way. Since his guilt is imbued with faith in God’s saving power and goodness, it is elevated beyond the level of meaninglessness and neurosis, and becomes a power based on a deep awareness of his own smallness. He sees what very few see clearly: that we are truly children. The consequence of this awareness of spiritual childhood is nothing short of revolutionary: the awakening of the spiritual senses, and the possible transformation of the world.<br />
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It is not likely that many are called to be one of the yurodivy, or “holy fools” that are part of the Russian spiritual tradition. Nor should we confuse their “prophetic insanity” with real mental illness. But their example, when they occasionally flash across the horizon of normal human community, points to something important: They show us Christ. They teach us much about living a right-ordered life, and model for us the way of radical trust, of humility, and of forgiveness. Thus they are islands of sanity and healing in the sea of the world.<br />
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Be sure to read the <a href="http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2010/05/sermon-of-pyotr-mamonov-star-of-ostrov.html" target="_blank">speech of actor Pyotr Mamonov</a> at the premiere of <i>The Island</i>.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Prayer Questions</span><br />
1)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Was there something about the spiritual attitude of Anatoly that challenges me, whether positively or negatively. Ask myself why this is so, and ask God the same question.<br />
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2)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Pick one or two spoken <u>lines</u> from the film that you remember and meditate on them. Chew them over, taste them, and extract their deeper meaning. Try to do this without “over-analyzing”. Let the words themselves speak to you as you consider them.<br />
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3)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Pick one or two visual <u>images</u> from the film that stand out most vividly, and meditate on them, in the same way as (no. 2). Gaze on the image and let the image gaze on you. Let your meditations turn, finally, into prayer.<br />
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John D. O'Brien, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14718447464911984436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672246.post-6117122678743153632015-01-21T23:14:00.001-05:002019-12-19T19:58:48.378-05:00Pushing Tin<i><br /></i>
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<i><br /></i>
<i><br /></i>
<i>By John O'Brien, S.J.</i><br />
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1999. Director: Mike Newell.<br />
Actors: John Cusack, Billy Bob Thorton, Cate Blanchett, Angelina Jolie.<br />
Music: Anne Dudley. (Rated R for language and mild sexuality)<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"O what tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive."<br />
– Sir Walter Scott</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Plot</b></span><br />
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<i>Pushing Tin</i> opens in the control room at the New York's Terminal Radar Approach Center (TRAC), where a team of air traffic controllers coordinate some 7,000 flights a day that zip in and out of Kennedy, La Guardia, and Newark airports. It’s a hectic and high-pressure work-place. When a tour of kids comes through the facility they are told: “Air controllers are responsible for more lives in a single shift than a surgeon in a lifetime.” Nick Falzone (Cusack), known as “the Zone”, is the hotshot controller of the group, who owns his reputation of being top of the game. Nick relates to his suburbanite wife Connie (Blanchette) with the same short attention span that enables him to land planes in split-second time frames. His status is challenged when a mysterious new transfer, Russell Bell (Thorton), arrives to work at the Center. Russell is the opposite of Nick – he’s restrained, calm, and of few words – but shares with Nick a reputation for daring and a perfect safety record for landing planes. Russell’s demeanor provokes Nick into challenging him to little male-ego contests that progressively intensify. Nick is also intrigued by Russell’s voluptuous young wife Mary (Jolie), who turns heads at a backyard BBQ party. The rivalry between the men soon gets out of hand, and regrettable things happen. Before Nick knows it, he has lost his cool, his ability to “push tin” and maintain slick control of his life.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>In Film History</b> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
This film has gone almost unnoticed, despite British director Mike Newell’s reputation for acclaimed odd-ball films like <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109831/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Four Weddings and a Funeral</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104522/?ref_=nv_sr_2" target="_blank">Into the West</a>, </i>and<i> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101811/?ref_=ttpl_pl_tt" target="_blank">Enchanted April</a>. </i>This is most likely because it doesn't fit neatly into any genre, which usually dampers popularity and box office success. Is it a comedy, a romance or a drama? It's a comedy, at any rate, in the <a href="http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/127459/comedy" target="_blank">classical sense</a>.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Spiritual Reflection</b></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<br />
"But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.'"<br />
– 2 Corinthians 12:9</blockquote>
The character of Nick Falzone in <i>Pushing Tin</i> is an “everyman”. He represents all of us, citizens of the modern age, for whom life can be fast-paced, excessively busy, and demanding to be “managed” so as not to get out of control. We tend to fear the prospect of our lives being “out of the control” as if some primordial chaos lies waiting to surge and snatch us up, or that we might find ourselves disintegrating into a thousand pieces. We have a particular tendency to micro-manage ourselves and the people around us. It’s safer to be in control.<br />
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Control is not necessarily a bad thing. There is a certain level of “control” that we need in our lives in order to be <i>responsible</i> peoples: mothers, fathers, workers, students, and so on. If I never set my alarm clock and just woke up “whenever”, I would probably be late for a great many appointments, causing inconvenience to a great many people. If I didn’t control the amount of food or drink I consume I might end up with a stomach-ache, or worse. If I didn’t think before speaking I would, no doubt, say a lot of silly things I’ll regret (sadly, I still do this from time to time!). Exercising responsibility over my thoughts, words and actions is part of living an ordered life, and is a habit that is quite conducive to happiness.<br />
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But there is another kind of control that <i>Pushing Tin</i> is hinting at, ever so subtly – or perhaps not so subtly, given the great obvious metaphor of the movie (hint: in the title). Our “control” is not a real freedom, unless we’re free to give it up when higher laws, such as love, require it. Otherwise it becomes a bondage, just another idol. If fear is what motivates our need to plan and direct, then we are not really liberated people, and that’s the kind of control we should seek to give up or surrender.<br />
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There are a many other good reasons to consider embracing the “surrender” we are talking about.<br />
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First, consider that we can’t <i>really</i> control our lives. Control is mostly an illusion we adopt, a conceit that we indulge. Even John Lennon noted that “life is what happens when you are busy making other plans.” Aside from the obvious and necessary planning that practical living requires, if we obsess about ensuring a seamless day, that day is sure to become unraveled. Micromanagement is a recipe for frustration.<br />
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Second, when we leave room for the freedom of <i>other people</i> in our life to breathe, we find that we have happier and healthier relationships. Friendships begin to flourish and family members bond more closely. It’s one of the great paradoxes of life that we only really have love when we set it free, that is, not be possessive about it (or him or her).<br />
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Third, and most importantly, we need to leave room in our lives for the spontaneity of grace, to allow God room to enter and inspire. It may take courage to “let go and let God”, since we have all kinds of irrational resistances to the idea. But again, a true Father has only the best interests of his child in mind. We should not be afraid of giving God some ear. His still, small voice may be the best thing we hear all day.<br />
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So, surrendering control is ultimately an act of genuine humility. It takes humility to say “I’m sorry” and admit that I have been wrong. But humility is only another way of acknowledging “reality”, and thus it is freedom. When I am humble, I’ve shed illusions, and I know exactly who I am, both my strengths and my weaknesses – and that God loves me for who I am. So both responsibility and “surrender” go hand-in-hand; they are like complementary friends who walk together.<br />
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A good day is one in which I have offered everything to be “fructified” – made holy and fruitful – by God himself. It always astounds me how positively different my day is when I have begun it in prayer, compared with days in which I have launched willy-nilly without entrusting the day to God. St. Ignatius of Loyola, in the <i>Spiritual Exercises</i>, recommends praying for a particular grace in this way: “that all my thoughts, intentions and operations be directed purely to the praise and service of his Divine Majesty.” This powerful morning prayer means that everything I do and say in a day can be made fruitful for God. It evokes both responsibility and surrender.<br />
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Nick “the Zone” Falzone believed that he could control his life, including the acts that he wished to keep hidden. But in the end these acts find their own way to reveal themselves, bringing about their own cosmic justice. Non-Christians might call this karma. Christ said “nothing is hidden that shall not be revealed, nor anything secret that shall not be made known and come to the light” (Luke 8:17). Nick learns this the hard way, but in the end, realizes that the great revealing of his real self is a great mercy.<br />
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While the characters in <i>Pushing Tin</i> are fallen human beings, and the director explores the nuances of their egotism with unrelenting attention, he also does so with a great overlying sympathy, as the periodic doses of humour indicate. What is true comedy but the ability to laugh at our human folly as it realigns with right living? In this way, the director shows us a pathway to inner freedom, through the spiritual practice of letting go.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Questions for personal reflection</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
1.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>How does the title “Pushing Tin”, the central metaphor of this film, point to a deeper meaning about human life?<br />
2.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>What does “surrendering to God” mean to me, and what area of my life might need “surrendering”?<br />
3.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>How have I experienced both forgiving and being forgiven, and what was the freedom like that followed that spiritual act?<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>“Through prayer we succeed in being with God. Anyone who is with God is far from the enemy. Prayer is a support and protection of charity, a brake on anger, an appeasement and the control of pride. Prayer is the custody of virginity, the protection of fidelity in marriage, the hope for those who are watching."</i> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
— Gregory of Nyssa, <i>De Oratione Dominica</i></blockquote>
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John D. O'Brien, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14718447464911984436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672246.post-62838619106705928712015-01-15T23:45:00.001-05:002019-12-19T19:59:00.343-05:00On the Waterfront<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br /></div>
<i>By John O'Brien, S.J.</i><br />
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<br /></div>
Director: Elia Kazan, 1954.<br />
Actors: Marlon Brando, Eva Marie-Saint, Karl Malden, Rod Steiger, Lee Cobb.<br />
Music: Leonard Bernstein.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
“Conscience... that stuff can drive you nuts!”</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
– Terry Molloy, On the Waterfront</div>
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Plot</span></b><br />
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Terry Molloy (Brando) is a young ex-prizefighter who is now a longshoreman, given easy jobs on the New Jersey waterfront because his older brother Charley (Steiger) is the right-hand man of the corrupt union boss, Johnny Friendly (Cobb). After Terry unwittingly allows himself to be used to set up the murder of a dockworker named Joey, he starts to question the basic assumptions of his life, including his loyalty to Charley and Johnny, who, after all, had ordered him to take a dive in his big fight in Madison Square Garden several years before. When he meets the murdered man’s sister Edie (Saint) and Father Barry (Malden), he is challenged even more to see the underlying corruption in the dockyards and his own complicity in it.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>
Place in History </b></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Near sweep of the Academy Awards in 1955, winning 8 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Supporting Actress, Cinematography, Writing, and Editing.<br />
•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked it as the #19 Greatest Movie of All Time.<br />
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When <i>On the Waterfront</i> was released in 1954, it was 23 years after Pope Pius XI had issued his social encyclical <i>Quadragesimo Anno</i> (1931). The encyclical was written on the ethical implications of the social and economic order, similar to its predecessor <i>Rerum Novarum </i>(1891), Leo XIII’s seminal social encyclical 40 years prior. Pius XI described the major dangers to human freedom from both unrestrained capitalism and totalitarian communism.<br />
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Pius XI called for a social order based on the principles of subsidiarity and solidarity, especially between employers and employees through new forms of cooperation and communication. He condemned communism but also the social conditions which nourished it. The encyclical called for a new social structure in which government, industry, and labor work together in a kind of third way between capitalism and communism. With this in mind, we can see in this film how the harmonious relationship between labour and capital can go astray, and that corruption is possible in any sector of society, wherever human beings do not respect the fundamental human dignity and rights of their fellows. Going a little deeper, the film also shows how any reform of a “system” must begin with a reform of the human heart. Terry Molloy’s moral awakening represents the personal “metanoia”, or conversion, that must precede the workers’ collective “metanoia” – which here means gaining the courage to end a corrupt system of domination, cronyism and kickbacks (enforced by violence), and the restoration of a more just system of union representation.<br />
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In the 1950s, in America, new worker and urban apostolic movements were active in the Church, the best known being those by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, founders of the Catholic Worker movement, and Catherine Doherty, who founded the Madonna House Apostolate. The character of Father Barry in <i>On the Waterfront </i>is based on the Jesuit priest, <a href="http://americamagazine.org/content/all-things/fr-corridan-karl-maldens-waterfront-inspiration" target="_blank">Fr. John Corridan</a>, who fought corruption and organized crime on the New York City waterfront in the 1940s and 50s. He was one of many men and women who prayed and worked hard for justice in impoverished sectors of North American society. Their work continues today.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
“ Some people think the Crucifixion only took place on Calvary. Well, they better wise up!”</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
– Father Barry, <i>On the Waterfront</i></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>
Spiritual Reflection</b></span><br />
<br />
For those of us alive today, the economic situation has changed dramatically since that of the 1950s. North American economy is no longer primarily industrial, but has evolved into a faster, wealthier digital culture, the so-called information economy. This film, however, reminds us that some things never change: there is still conflict between the “hawks and pigeons” (notice this motif throughout the film!) today just as in every age. Souls are still damaged especially by the various forms of abandonment and neglect (as happened to Terry in this film). The exclusive pursuit of profit still drives many lives. Conscience – the still small voice of God written on our hearts – still speaks to each of us and calls us to metanoia.<br />
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Edmund Burke famously said, “All it takes for evil to prosper, is for good men to do nothing.” Sometimes conscience calls us to break out of a certain basic complacency, to crack our “comfort zones” as this complacency is often called today. Conscience can call us to make a greater witness to Truth, Goodness or Beauty than what we are accustomed to, even at personal cost. Our faith, too, requires of us an active form of listening, of paying attention to God’s voice in the world around us, and then acting. While there is, on the one hand, the risk of becoming “busybodies for Christ”, the extreme of <i>activism</i>, there is also the opposite risk of <i>quietism</i>, of letting things slide because the effort could cost too much. St. Ignatius of Loyola notes that the evil spirit loves the tactic of “proposing obstacles” and fears to our interior ear. These fears are often just illusions, “false reasonings”, and comprise 99% of the enemy’s tool-kit. But the answer is not a “golden mean” between activism and quietism, a kind of mushy-middle ground. Instead, Jesus invites to “Be not afraid!”, to take heart – for love will cast out all fear and empower us to do the impossible.<br />
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So how might we free ourselves from our own, personal forms of quietism and discover anew our freedom as sons and daughters of God? There are two powerful moments in the film that depict a particular turning point in the lives of the protagonists. We might call them “confessional moments”, scenes in which, having been touched by love, the characters admit they have been complicit in error. We will notice how these scenes are catalysts for the spiritual liberation that follows, although there is some cost. Without giving too much away, we can identify the first such scene as when Terry decides he will accept the risk of losing Edie, and admit to her his role in her brother’s murder. What we witness is certainly an imperfect confession, limited by outside interference, but it frees him spiritually to do what he must do.<br />
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The second is one of the most famous scenes in film history, the “I coulda been a contender” speech Terry gives his brother Charley in the taxicab. Here one brother must speak a hard truth to another, and, as director Elia Kazan later said about Brando: “Who else could read ‘Oh, Charley!’ in a tone of reproach that is so loving and so melancholy and suggests the terrific depth of pain?” Terry’s moment of truth-speaking to his older brother causes Charley “to convert” from the task he had set out to do, and make his own act of selfless sacrifice. In a sense, Terry had to “confess” Charley’s sins to and for Charley, by the very act of his gentle but powerful admonishment. This truth-telling, of naming what needed naming, is only possible because there is a shrunken but still living love between them.<br />
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In the <i>Spiritual Exercises</i>, St. Ignatius reminds us vividly that “the enemy behaves like a false lover who wishes to remain hidden and does not want to be revealed.” (Sp. Ex. 326), that the seducer loves to operate in the shadows. But by speaking and acting “confessionally”, that is, by living in the light and bringing things to the light, evil can be defeated and love can begin its road to restoration and full flourishing. Indeed, the light is already there, in the hearts of Terry, Charley, Edie and Father Barry. As this film shows, that light will shine in the darkness. And the darkness does not overcome it.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"></span>The theme of this film series is “The Hidden Roots of Love”. Somehow, in this classic, noir-like film we see only the beginnings of love taking form and standing on its own two feet. It invites us to consider how love requires a letting go of some voices, and of following others. Love means listening, above all, to an inner voice. Love will probably require of us a sacrifice, but it will, in the end, provide the one reliable pathway to inner freedom. <i>On the Waterfront</i> shows us the subtle and poignant manifestations of human and divine love in an otherwise grim and gritty world. In doing so, it gives us a little glimpse of heaven.<br />
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Questions</span><br />
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1)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Is this film primarily about love or justice? How are they related?<br />
2)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>As we see in the film, fear is a paralyzer. How do the characters overcome fear? Does fear play a role in my life that limits my ability to live and love more fully?<br />
3)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>In every human drama, in one form or another, the drama of the Pascal Mystery (Christ’s passion, death and resurrection) is present in the lives of the characters. Is this the case in this film?<br />
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John D. O'Brien, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14718447464911984436noreply@blogger.com1