Journeys of a Catholic Poster Girl

All right, time for a book ‘n movie round-up:

books :

St. Therese of Lisieux, story of a Soul or L’Historie d’Ame , as the French would say…the autobiography of my patron saint, so it’s very bizarre that I haven’t read this earlier. that’s probably due ot the fact that this is a hard book, surprisingly, to find in mainstream bookstores, but I finally found a copy at a local Catholic bookshop that was produced by a Carmelite house here in the U.S.

The book isn’t one book, it’s actually three manuscripts in one: Manuscript A is the story of her life, as written for Mother Agnes, prioress of the Carmel for a time and Therese’s older sister and “little mother” Pauline. Manuscript B talks about her vocation– “my vocation is love!”– and was written for her oldest sister, Marie, who was also in Carmel. The final part, Mauscript C, was written on prayer and her “little way” for Mother Marie de Gonzagua, who became prioress again after Pauline. All three together present a vivid portrait of a saint and her “little way”, which is, unsurprisingly, filled with the profound spiritual insight that made Pope John Pual II proclaim her a Doctor of the Church in 2000 (I think it was that year, anyway). Definitely, definitely worth reading this.

In conjunction with that, I’ve also been reading (but haven’t finished) St. Therese of Lisieux: Her family, her God, her message by Fr. Bernard Bro, a leading expert in Theresian theology. It’s a fascinating look at the forces that shaped her life and her spitirtuality and I’m really enjoying it so far.

Movies :

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is now on DVD. If you’re a fan, get the two disc set because it’s awesome. The film looks great on DVD transfer and is even better than I remember. Read my review in the December archieves if you haven’t and then run to Best Buy to get this puppy. It’s awesome.

King Kong idn’t see it in the theater but bought it on DVD. It’s good, a little long in parts (I thought that some of the scenes on Skull Island could have been shortened or cut, esp. the ones with the gross bugs), but the acting is pretty good (especially Naomi Watts, who is essentially acting against a green screen the whole time) and some of th CGI effects just take your breath away. I did find the Central Park scene a little hokey (tell me again how Kong is supported on that ice?) but I loved the sunset scene. It’s worth watching if you haven’t seen it but it’s not this great Oscar worthy film that you must see (the idea, if true, that Naomi watts was miffed because she didn’t get an Oscar nomination for her role is nuts, because her acting was good, but definitely not Best Actress worthy).

Little story before we start…

I was sitting around with a bunch of my friends one night last year, discussing the potential pool of Republican 2008 Presidential candidates. A lot of them voiced support for Rudy, which is well-deserved, even today, given that he was mayor of New York City, a city that is sapphire in its blueness, and did one hell of a job. But I wasn’t about to get on the Rudy bandwagon.

“He’s pro-choice,” I said.

“But he’s good on terrorism and national security. He’s a shoo-in,” one of my best friends added.

“Yeah, but he’s pro-choice.”

“So? That’s minor.”

“He won’t get out of the primary, for starters,” I said. “And I can’t vote for a pro-choicer. I’ll vote for a pro-life Democrat before I vote for a pro-choice Republican.”

Most of the people in the room looked at me like I was crazy. Winning is, in the political life, first and foremost in the mind. With winning you get to set the agenda. But I wasn’t about to let the agenda be set by someone who doesn’t agree with me on key moral issues. He might win, but it wasn’t with my vote.

All of this came to the surface lately after I finished reading Father Neuhaus’ new book Catholic Matters (I posted a review of it in another post). He asks an intriguing question: Are we, as Americans, Catholic Americans or American Catholics? Which comes first in our allegiance?

As I thought about this, I realized that I consider myself a Catholic American. My faith is probably, if I had to say, more important that my citizenship. Don’t get me wrong. I am proud to be an American, glad for the freedoms and privileges I enjoy and can say, without reservation, that I consider the U.S. the best country in the world (sorry to my foreign readers ). But my country isn’t going with me when I die. I don’t have to stand in judgement before George Washington, and Abe Lincoln didn’t die to save my soul. I love America, but she can make mistakes–she’s run by faliable humans. But with Catholicism, that doesn’t happen. “The gates of Hell will not prevail against it.” I can put more stock in those beliefs than in others. And when it comes to what my party believes and what my Church teaches, I’m going to side with the Church. Of course one does not have to accept everything that comes out of a bishop’s mouth, so I put my faith in Rome, the Magesterium and the catechism. Thank God we have B XVI in charge.

This is a difficult thing to think about. It isn’t often that one has to make this distinction, but when you have to, I’d make it a Catholic American over an American Catholic. God has to come first, right? Isn’t that what He tells us?

I’m sure I’ll have more thoughts about this…but this is what I’ve got for now.