Looking at Life Through the Lens of the Spirit

Over the past 15 years, I have enjoyed integrating my love of movies with the challenges of the “New Evangelization”. In our yearly Video Divina film series, we have explored a wide variety of theological, spiritual and ethical themes through the medium of film: Catholic Identity, “Saints Alive!”, Heroes of Conscience, Images of Priesthood, Focusing on the Family, Jesus-Films and Christ-Figures, The Sacramental Imagination, and “Movies with a Mission!”

Inspired by the ancient Christian practice of active listening to the Word of God (‘lectio divina’), ‘Video Divina’ takes this 1,500-year-old monastic tradition, integrates certain imaginative and affective elements from Ignatian spirituality, and applies them to the language of film. There were four steps traditionally associated with this practice: ‘lectio’ (reading and listening to the Word of God), ‘meditatio’ (reflecting on the Word), ‘oratio’ (the Word touches the heart), and ‘contemplatio’ (entering a silence deep beyond words). Or more poetically: We read (lectio) under the eye of God (meditatio) until the heart is touched (oratio) and leaps to flame (contemplatio).

Applying this to the viewing of a film, the same basic approach holds. I view the film, open to the new insights it may bring. I use my gifts of perception and imagination, conscious of sights and sounds, of my intellectual and emotional response to the characters, the plot-line, the images. I allow connections to surface between what is going on in the film, world events, and perhaps even my own life. I become conscious of the values it proposes: its images of God, the human person, society, creation, passion, fidelity, growth, love. I engage in dialogue about what I have discovered about myself, about what it means to live in this world, and to live well. As the end credits roll by, as the music plays, I sit quietly with the feelings, not rushing into idle talk, letting the full experience sink in. Then in the subsequent discussion, we ask questions: How has this experience helped me to not only see my life differently, but also to live it differently, to invest it more generously and passionately, as a result of this encounter with the living God?

For our opening film of this year’s series “Stories of Transformation”, Bagdad Café, we are blessed with the presence of a world-renowned expert on theology and film, Fr. Lloyd Baugh S.J., professor emeritus of film studies at Rome’s Gregorian University. He has graciously offered to come and teach us “how to read a film theologically and spiritually” and to lead our discussion. So please come join us this coming Friday, October 28th, at 7:00 p.m in the parish rectory. Free admission and popcorn