Posts tagged spiritual
Easter Sunday Christians celebrate Jesus resurrection
Apr 20th
After the death of the Master, the disciples had scattered; their faith had been utterly shaken, everything seemed over, all their certainties had crumbled and their hopes had died. But now that message of the women, incredible as it was, came to them like a ray of light in the darkness. The news spread: Jesus is risen as he said. And then there was his command to go to Galilee; the women had heard it twice, first from the angel and then from Jesus himself: “Let them go to Galilee; there they will see me”.
Galilee is the place where they were first called, where everything began! To return there, to return to the place where they were originally called. Jesus had walked along the shores of the lake as the fishermen were casting their nets. He had called them, and they left everything and followed him (cf. Mt 4:18-22).
To return to Galilee means to re-read everything on the basis of the cross and its victory. To re-read everything – Jesus’ preaching, his miracles, the new community, the excitement and the defections, even the betrayal – to re-read everything starting from the end, which is a new beginning, from this supreme act of love.
For each of us, too, there is a “Galilee” at the origin of our journey with Jesus. “To go to Galilee” means something beautiful, it means rediscovering our baptism as a living fountainhead, drawing new energy from the sources of our faith and our Christian experience. To return to Galilee means above all to return to that blazing light with which God’s grace touched me at the start of the journey. From that flame I can light a fire for today and every day, and bring heat and light to my brothers and sisters. That flame ignites a humble joy, a joy which sorrow and distress cannot dismay, a good, gentle joy.
In the life of every Christian, after baptism there is also a more existential “Galilee”: the experience of a personal encounter with Jesus Christ who called me to follow him and to share in his mission. In this sense, returning to Galilee means treasuring in my heart the living memory of that call, when Jesus passed my way, gazed at me with mercy and asked me to follow him. It means reviving the memory of that moment when his eyes met mine, the moment when he made me realize that he loved me.
Today, tonight, each of us can ask: What is my Galilee? Where is my Galilee? Do I remember it? Have I forgotten it? Have I gone off on roads and paths which made me forget it? Lord, help me: tell me what my Galilee is; for you know that I want to return there to encounter you and to let myself be embraced by your mercy.
The Gospel of Easter is very clear: we need to go back there, to see Jesus risen, and to become witnesses of his resurrection. This is not to go back in time; it is not a kind of nostalgia. It is returning to our first love, in order to receive the fire which Jesus has kindled in the world and to bring that fire to all people, to the very ends of the earth.
“Galilee of the Gentiles” (Mt 4:15; Is 8:23)! Horizon of the Risen Lord, horizon of the Church; intense desire of encounter… Let us be on our way!
Pope Francis
News from Flagler College
Nov 11th
Mormons. Trappist monks. Gang kids. Pope John Paul II. 9/11. The Rwandan genocide.
Helen Whitney has spent a lifetime examining people and subjects from all walks of life. The acclaimed writer, producer and director will speak on “A Life in Film; Spiritual Landscapes,” a retrospective of the last 40 years of her life and work, with an emphasis on the defining spiritual themes as part of Flagler College’s “Ideas and Images” series.
Whitney, whose series began on Nov. 6-7 will return to the college for two more lectures at 7 p.m. Nov. 13-14 in the Lewis Auditorium at Flagler College, 14 Granada St.
“It is an exploration of a wide variety of topics, among them: juvenile crime, the McCarthy Era, contemporary presidential politics, Papal authority, the troubled relationship between Jews and Christians, our dysfunctional mental health system the oppression of gay men and women, the birth of a new American religion, Mormonism, the spiritual aftershocks of 9/11, the complexities and contradictions of the new forgiveness and many other subjects,” said Whitney.
Whitney’s lectures will also touch on filmmaking issues from journalistic ethics and narrative structure to the language of film and the special challenges inherent in making films about spirituality.
Whitney’s features have aired on PBS, HBO and ABC including “Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero,” PBS’ two-hour special on 9/11 which explored the spiritual aftershocks of this horrific event. Amongst her many accolades are an Oscar nomination; two Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards; a George Foster Peabody Award; an Edward R. Murrow Award for distinguished journalism; an Emmy Award; and awards from The Writer’s Guild of America, The Director’s Guild of America, The Hamptons International Film Festival and The San Francisco International Film Festival.
Whitney is a sought after lecturer and frequently speaks at universities, divinity schools, museums and art institutes. She has served as the Director of the Board of Film Forum in New York City and has been artist in residence at six universities and is a Woodrow Wilson scholar.
“Ideas and Images: Visiting Scholars and Artists Program” will feature an international composition of artists and authors, introducing a fresh and creative component to the greater St. Augustine community.
Each event is free and open to the public. Call (904) 819-6282 or visit www.flagler.edu/our-community for more information.
Locker speaks on post-election politics at Flagler Forum event Nov. 15
No matter who wins the election on Nov. 6, Ray Locker says the political campaigning and wrangling will not be over yet.
“We still have the upcoming lame-duck Congress and a bunch of key issues to hash out by the end of the year,” said Locker, the Washington enterprise editor for USA TODAY who will speak at Flagler College on Nov. 15 as part of the 2012 Forums on Government and Public Policy lecture series.
Locker, who will speak on “It’s Not Over Yet: The 2012 Election and the Stakes for a Lame-Duck Congress,” believes the outcome of the election will come down to important factors such as Hispanic and minority voter turnout as well as the discussion on future of major entitlement programs such as Medicare and health care.
He also believes the outcome of this race could determine how campaigns are run in the future.
“This year will be the test between advertising and campaign organization,” said Locker. “I believe it will lead to fundamental changes in how pollsters do business in future elections.”
As the Washington enterprise editor for USA TODAY, Locker supervises the investigative work in the organization’s Washington bureau. He has been the paper’s White House and politics editor and national security editor in the seven years since joining USA TODAY in 2005. His work as an editor and reporter was nominated for Pulitzer Prizes in 2008 and 2010.
Before joining USA TODAY, Locker ran the Associated Press bureau in Sacramento and coordinated the news service’s coverage of California government and politics, including the 2003 recall campaign that led to the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger. He worked for the Los Angeles Times and spent 13 years as a reporter, columnist and editor at The Tampa Tribune.
All forums take place at Lewis Auditorium at Flagler College, 14 Granada St., at 7 p.m. Forums are free and open to the public thanks to the generosity of speakers who donate their time in support of the series. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Sign language interpreters are provided. Call (904) 819-6400 for more information.
Source: Flagler College
“The Tree of Life” The Film of Pretentiousness
Jun 22nd
“The Film of Pretentiousness”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
The Tree of Life won the Palme D’or at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, which says something more about the French than it does about this film.
Written and directed by Terrence Malick, well-known, reclusive, but slow-working filmmaker, this is only his fifth feature-length film, his first being the 1973 Badlands, which has a cult following, as do most of Malick’s films.
I believe it is safe to say that Malick’s films are an acquired taste, and I found his latest one to be distasteful.
No, “distasteful” is such an ugly word. Let’s just call it boring and pretentious.
The film contains very little dialogue within scenes that are part of what little story there is, and most of the dialogue is voice-over narration, such as when Mrs. O’Brien says at the beginning of the film, “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.”
Then we see the first of the scenes that will develop this theme, which involve the O’Brien family, Mr. and Mrs. O’Brien, played by Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain, and their three boys, the oldest of whom, Jack, is played by Sean Penn as a grown-up.
Although most of the scenes about the family take place in the 1950s in Texas, sometime in the Sixties Mrs. O’Brien receives a telegram that one of the boys is dead, when he was 19.
So, then we see scenes of grief, hear lots of voice-over spiritual narration, and then we experience a long sequence of images that actually depict the beginning of the cosmos, the planet, the beginnings of life, and, yes, even dinosaurs.
Two women in the theater walked out at this point, before the film got back to the story of the O’Brien family in the Fifties, beginning with the birth of Jack.
Mr. O’Brien is a strict disciplinarian who demands that everyone obey him, but also profess their love for him. He represents nature.
Mrs. O’Brien plays wildly with abandon with the boys when Mr. O’Brien is away on a business trip. She represents grace.
However, the story is weak to begin with, and the film is made even weaker with all the spiritual visual images.
The Tree of Life is the film of pretentiousness.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”