The following is an article written in the format found in The Catholic Hipster Handbook. Meaning it will have a Topic Article, Cool Saint, Forgotten Prayer, and Activity. This is written partially as a daydream, a creative writing exercise where I asked myself "If I had contributed something to The Catholic Hipster Handbook, what would it look like?". If you happen to enjoy this post, feel free to check out my thoughts on the book here or better yet go out and buy the book to enjoy the many great things it has to offer. Hopefully Tommy and fellow contributors will find this imitation a form of flattery instead of the bizarre fanboy weirdness that is actually is...
Most of us have seen The Sound of Music, The Passion of the Christ, Les Miserables, and even Sister Act...and even The Exorcist. Sometimes you may have sat down with parents or grandparents who were watching a movie on TV and you might've seen Bing Crosby or Pat O'Brien playing a priest or Jennifer Jones portraying St. Bernadette. Point being that there's just those staple movies involving Catholicism that most of the American population has seen and it makes it feel like there's a very limited representation of Catholicism on the Silver Screen.
In some ways, it may feel like the Catholic faith and the movies just don't really get along. Sure, there's those golden oldies from back in the day, but really, since the end of the Hays Code when American society started becoming more secular and relativistic, how many good Catholic movies have been made compared to the vast amounts of trashy or anti-Catholic movies? I can almost hear some of you asking what the Hays Code is and others ready to blame these problems on Vatican II.
Perhaps the answer to the above question comes in the form of other questions: What do you know about the Vatican Film List? When was the last time you sat through an exorcism movie? Wasn't that Brendan Gleeson movie about a small village priest in Ireland really well done?
Basically, there have always been hidden gems of Catholicism in movies around the world, even today. The fact that there are a bunch of great movies about Catholicism out there that most people don't really know about is something that should perk up all of you Catholic hipsters out there. Hidden, obscure, indie!? There's just something truly hipster about the best Catholic movies. While every other Christian person out there is watching another sequel to God's Not Dead or supporting other "Christian" movies with a VeggieTales level of theology, you could be scavenging the libraries and the interwebs to watch some truly great pieces of Catholic cinema, such as:
-I Confess (1953), a movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock about a priest who is falsely accused of murder and cannot break the Seal of the Confessional to claim his innocence.
-Deliver Us From Evil (2014), where Eric Bana plays a New York cop that partners with an exorcist priest to stop a crime with supernatural elements.
-Becket (1964), in which Richard Burton as St. Thomas Becket and Peter O'Toole as King Henry II go from friends to frenemies after Becket is made Archbishop of Canterbury.
-The Hoodlum Priest (1961), a B movie shot in St. Louis about a real life priest that ministered to and evangelized ex-convicts.
-Au Revoir Les Enfants (1987), a true to life French movie about two boys at a Catholic boarding school during World War II.
Now, when I talk about Catholic Movies, I mean movies that are positive portrayals of specifically Catholic subjects. Movies where priests or nuns are the main characters. Movies about the lives of saints. Movies that involves the Sacraments and exorcisms. Movies that are biblical and movies that are about recent events. These traits are the basic elements of what define a good Catholic movie.
I wasn't kidding about the library and the interwebs either. A lot of the best Catholic movies I've seen have been what I've found at my local library since they have a wide selection of DVDs to take home. Other times, I've had to search around Amazon or elsewhere on the internet to find that next special Catholic DVD. Occasionally you may come across a selection of DVDs at a Catholic supply store or at a conference or a relative may just give you one, but otherwise you're not going to have an easy time finding the truly great Catholic movies in major retail stores. You gotta go on a hunt and find the diamonds in the rough. Yet, that's part of what makes being a hipster so worthwhile, isn't it?
Cool Saint
St. Genesius
I tried hard to find a saint that wasn't replicated from the book, but I think this saint's story is too applicable to the topic.
St. Genesius was an actor from the Roman Empire during the third and fourth centuries. Tradition tells us that he was pretty much just living a good ol' pagan life when one day he had a brilliant idea to impress his pagan master, Emperor Diocletian, by creating a parody play that mocked Christianity. Putting his acting to the test, St. Genesius found some Christians (who were laying low because of religious persecution, mind you) and pretended to be interested in receiving the Sacrament of Baptism. All to do research on it so he could properly mock it in his parody. Hhhmm, sounds like method acting to me...an ancient Roman version of Daniel Day Lewis perhaps?
Anywho, once he's got enough information, tradition says that St. Genesius cut ties with the Christians before actually receiving the Sacrament, grabbed his troupe, and put on the show in front of an audience, including Emperor Diocletian. Onstage, St. Genesius portrayed a sick man, receiving a baptism from a priest. Again, tradition says that right after the mock baptism, St. Genesius had a sudden conversion and he changed right there on the spot. This story kind of reminds me of stories like how Sir Alec Guinness converted after playing Father Brown in The Detective or how the actor who played Judas in The Passion of the Christ converted during the filming of that movie. There's just something about being in the spotlight and pondering God and faith in word and deed.
So, St. Genesius, during this performance, turned it from a parody into a testimony by proclaiming Jesus Christ as God and King. He even told Diocletian himself to repent and convert. This did not sit well with the emperor, who had St. Genesius put to death. Therefore, as tradition goes, St. Genesius received a baptism by blood through his martyrdom.
Forgotten Prayer
Prayer to St Genesius
Actor and Martyr
Holy St Genesius,
martyr for Christ,
by the grace of the Holy Spirit
through your acting
you came to discover
the truth of the Christian faith.
In your first profession of that faith
you were baptized through the shedding
of your blood,
offering your life for the praise and glory
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Pray for those who dedicate their lives
to the theatrical and cinematic arts.
Like you may they find the presence
of the Lord in their work
and generously open their hearts
to his teaching,
living it in the midst of the challenges
and demands of their calling.
In this novena, I remember most especially…., commending him/her to your care.
Let us pray:
Eternal Father, in your love you call all men and women to come to know you and to share in your divine life. Through the intercession of your martyr, Genesius, who responded so generously to the grace of conversion, grant that the same grace may be given to those who as yet do not know you, and may be renewed in those who do. We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Activity
Go to Google and search "Best Catholic Movies". Look through the various lists you and find the movies that are specifically Catholic Movies like the descriptions above. Spot the names of movies you'd never heard of before and look interesting to you. Check out the trailers on Youtube or read a quick synopsis on IMDB. Of those movies that interest you, pick 3 movies to watch at home. Buy them, rent them, stream them, do whatever you legally have to do in order to watch these particular 3 movies in the next month.
Sources:
http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=185
http://www.stgenesius.com/dedicatedmembers.html
No comments:
Post a Comment