So the 4:00 and the 7:00PM Christmas Masses are over and now there is nothing to do but stay awake until it is time for midnight Mass (which at this parish is at midnight.) But what to do to fill those hours? Dinner is eaten, presents are wrapped and ready, homilies are prepared, and there is not enough time to go anywhere. A nap would be disastrous as I would be groggy all through the Mass.
Luckily we had a seminarian staying with us and we decided to watch a movie. A good half hour was taken up with this useless exercise:
I'd not seen it before!
It looked interesting!
It would eat up just the right amount of time.
And - no kidding - THIS was almost the first scene:
It was like the time I invited priests and young men over to the rectory and we had an evening to encourage vocations. At the end of the evening we were going to watch a movie. There was one with a GREAT spiritual meaning and no nudity or cussing (that any of us could remember.) So we put it on and the VERY FIRST WORD spoken in the movie was a guy screaming in the most drawn out way possible the F-bomb.
HOW COULD NONE OF US REMEMBER THAT?
"Guys, please don't tell you parents what movie we watched unless they ask."
I guess it was the same thing here.
3 comments:
I never tire of watching re-runs of "Forrest Gump"--although, it, too, has a few inappropriate scenes. Likewise, "The Shawshank Redemption", "The Blind Side", or the disaster film, "The Day After Tomorrow".
"Jesus of Nazareth" (1977) with Robert Powell as Jesus, was airing on Christmas Eve. It is said that Robert Powell trained himself to never blink when filming the scenes, to give a supernatural aura to the Persona of Jesus.
When I read Scripture, I sometimes find myself visualizing the characters in Hollywood style, for example, Charlton Heston as Moses in "The Ten Commandments" and Ernest Borgnine as the Centurion in "Jesus of Nazareth".
Try "A League of Their Own" (just a little objectionable content, and the film doesn't dwell on it), "A Man for All Seasons", or "To Kill A Mockingbird", which are all uplifting without being sickly sentimental.
There is another movie, whose name escapes me, starring Tom Hanks and Liv Tyler. It is about a one-hit wonder teenaged band from the early 1960's called "The Oneders" from Erie, PA. Very catchy music and a pretty good message.
And usually whatever film is on EWTN on Saturday nights at 8 PM is a very good option - often saint biographies or dramatizations of events touching the Church. "Romero" was on about a month ago. It was excellent and touched me deeply, especially now that I have a wonderful, lovely Hispanic Goddaughter. I can now understand a little more of what our good Fr. Schindler lived through when he worked in El Salvador during their civil war.
And at Christmas, you can't go wrong with "It's a Wonderful Life" and "The Bishop's Wife" (the one with Cary Grant as the angel and Loretta Young as the bishop's wife).
A very blessed Christmas and a hopeful and joyful New Year to you, Father!
Sue, ofs
I just remembered the name of the movie with Tom Hanks and Liv Tyler - "That Thing You Do", which is the name of the one-hit wonder.
Sue, ofs
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