books /films

The call to live life in the Holy Spirit was a powerful and unforgettable theme of the recent World Youth Day celebration and to aid in this, a new booklet has been published to help guide Catholics towards an authentic understanding of Catholic spirituality.

 

The booklet, Living in the Holy Spirit, is an initiative of the Bishops Commission for Doctrine and Morals. It was prepared by Fr David Ranson of the Catholic Institute of Sydney.

 

In examining different aspects of what it means to live life in the Spirit, the booklet recognises that we live at a time in which 'spirituality' enjoys wide interest, but that not everything that presents as 'spiritual' is helpful.

 

"Critical discernment is essential. In the plethora of possibilities for spiritual development, various counterfeits to genuine spirituality can present," the introduction says.

 

"The contemporary situation places a particular challenge on the Christian disciple within the Catholic tradition. In the midst of the many different options, how do we maintain the integrity of the Christian spiritual journey?"

 

In easy-to-read language and an attractive layout, the booklet goes on to outline the key aspects of an authentic Catholic spirituality.

 

Some of the key points presented are that Christian spirituality in the Catholic tradition begins with the encounter with the person of Jesus Christ through the Word and in the Church community and seeks to grow in openness to the Trinitarian mystery through an ever-deeper immersion into the paschal reality, particularly as communicated through a sacramental life.

 

In the forward to the booklet, the Chairman of the Bishops Commission for Doctrine and Morals, Cardinal George Pell said that Living in the Holy Spirit was intended as "an aid to reflection and prayer on the importance of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church, and in the pilgrimage that each of us makes as individuals in this life".

 

"It is my hope that this booklet will help Catholics and Christians of all denominations to focus on the Holy Spirit and on the nature of genuine Christian spirituality. The religious longings of the heart are growing more intense in our time and we need the help of the Spirit to discern and practise genuine spirituality and faith."

 

 

 

Internationally renowned Australian scripture scholar Fr Frank Moloney SDB, of Melbourne, has written the text to accompany icons in a new book, The Life of Jesus in Icons, which has been produced by St Paul Publications. The book features icons form the Cathedral church of Mary of the Assumption in Tblisi.

 

The Life of Jesus in Icons will be launched the in Crypt of St Patrick's Church, The Rocks, Sydney, on Tuesday, December 2, between 6 and 8pm. Fr Moloney will speak about the icons and the text as part of the launch.  An invitation is extended to any interested people to attend.  Bookings are not necessary and entry is free.  The launch is being supported by the Aquinas Academy.

 

 

A powerful new DVD, featuring the personal stories of two young women faced with an unexpected pregnancy, has been launched as part of a comprehensive strategy to explore alternatives and pastoral responses to abortion.

 

The Walking with Love DVD comes with an accompanying study guide which aims to help people come to understand ways in which they can help to support women who find themselves facing an unexpected pregnancy.

 

A project of the Bishops Commission for Pastoral Life, the DVD was launched by Bishop Peter Elliott in Melbourne.

 

 

 

 

Hunger won the Camera d'Or for the best first-time director at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008 and also this year's Sydney Film Festival's international competition.

 

It tells the story of the last months in the life of Irish Republican, Bobby Sands (played by Michael Fassbender), who after more than two months on a hunger strike for the right to be considered a political prisoner and not a criminal, died at the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland. He was buried following a requiem mass at St. Peter's Cathedral, west Belfast , after his death in May, 1981.

 

Liam McMahon and Brian Milligan play Sands' fellow prisoners who, like Sands, insist they are political prisoners, not criminals. Stuart Graham plays the part of the head guard, Raymond Lohan, who lives his life in constant fear of terrorism and who engages in brutal violence. The prisoners are treated cruelly, inhumanely and with total disrespect for their rights, and Lohan plays the ultimate price in a terrorist pay-back.

 

The film vividly depicts the conflict between IRA prisoners and the guards of the prison in the living hell of one of its infamous H Blocks. Sands was the first of 10 men to die. The hunger strike ended five months later when the British Government started to meet the prisoners' demands.

 

Sand's story was imprinted on the memory of Steve McQueen, who was a child of 11 years at the time, and he later went on to direct this movie.

 

The film - much of it without words -  has an intense focus to it and an extraordinary inner-centeredness. This is not a film about martyrdom, nor being a hero, nor being a victim, as some might think, but a vivid portrayal of a person who went to extremes to say what he wanted to say.

 

Strikingly pertinent to all those interested in the preservation of life, there is a long, unforgettable conversation between Sands and a Catholic priest, Father Dominic Moran (played by Liam Cunningham) about the decision to go on strike. Engaging in small talk at first, their conversation - with their profiles dramatically silhouetted throughout - pits the ideological commitment of Sands against the force of the priest's moral position. The interaction between them compellingly and cogently confronts the issues surrounding the importance of life, and puts Sand's decision to sacrifice his life in ethical perspective.

 

Fassbender went on a medically supervised diet to do this film and the scenes of Sands towards the end of the movie are almost unbearable to watch. Graphic scenes show his skeletal frame, ravaged by hunger and sores. The camera work by Sean Bobbitt is haunting and he fills the screen, almost frame by frame, with images of great poetic power. He seems particularly well suited to McQueen, who was a visual artist of considerable renown before he moved across to film-direction.

 

This film is entirely unremitting in what it depicts, and it does much more than dramatize history. It uses history to depict events that challenge and confront, and it presents no easy winner. One can't help but draw parallels with Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay and Australia's own detention centres where refugees have a story to be heard and understood by those who prefer not to hear their message.

 

In the final run, however, this is McQueen's and Fassbender's film: McQueen's, because the film captures  so vividly his vision of a determined individual trapped in a horrific environment; and Fassender's, because he pushes his body to such impossible limits.

 

Peter W. Sheehan is an associate of the Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting.

 

photos credit:    Icon Film Distribution website