Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church

I write these words from the Eternal City of Rome, whither I’ve come with my brother bishops from Region 11 (California, Nevada, and Hawaii) for our ad limina visit. This is a regular and canonically required trip to pray at the limina apostolorum (the threshold of the Apostles), the tombs of Saints Peter and Paul, and to meet with the successor of Peter. Yesterday was the first official day of the pilgrimage, and it was extraordinary indeed. We gathered early in the morning for Mass in the crypt of St. Peter’s Basilica, in the presence of the tomb of the Galilean fisherman to whom Jesus gave the keys of kingdom of heaven. And then, just about a half-hour later, we were ushered into the Apostolic Palace, and after traversing a number of elaborately decorated corridors and receiving a few salutes from Swiss Guards (I’ll confess that I rather like the…

I saw the film 1917 on the vigil of the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, and I think there’s a connection between the movie and the liturgical celebration. Bear with me. First, as everyone who has seen it remarks, the editing and cinematography of 1917 are so astounding that it appears to unfold completely in real time, the result of one continuous shot. Think of the famous scene from Scorsese’s Goodfellas, in which Ray Liotta and his date walk into the night club—but now stretched out for two hours. What this produces in the viewer is an almost unprecedented sense of being there, experiencing the events with the characters in the film. And to be inserted into the First World War is, to put it mildly, horrific. Obviously, all wars are terrible, but there was just something uniquely appalling about World War I: the oppressiveness of the trenches,…

Vi la película 1917 la vigilia de la fiesta del Bautismo del Señor, y creo que hay una conexión entre la película y la celebración litúrgica. Tengan paciencia. En primer lugar, como comentan todos los que lo han visto, el montaje y la cinematografía de 1917 son tan sorprendentes que parece desarrollarse completamente en tiempo real, el resultado de una toma continua. Piensen en la famosa escena de la película Goodfellas (Uno de los nuestros en España y Buenos muchachos en Hispanoamérica), donde Ray Liotta y la chica con la que tenía una cita entran en el club nocturno, pero estirada durante dos horas. Lo que esto produce en el espectador es una sensación casi inédita de estar allí, experimentando los acontecimientos con los personajes de la película. Y ser insertados en la Primera Guerra Mundial es, por decirlo suavemente, horroroso. Obviamente, todas las guerras son terribles, pero hubo algo…