Movie: Fireproof - Never Leave Your Partner Behind

Lucille and I watched the movie Fireproof not too long ago.

• Fireproof - Never Leave Your Partner Behind (movie site)

Caleb and Catherine Hold are on the verge of divorce. There is no longer much of a connection between them with very little in the way of constructive communication happening either.

In what would seem a final and desperate move, Caleb reaches out to his father for some advice.

His dad asks him to hold off on getting into the divorce proceedings until Caleb receives a mail package from him.

When the package arrives, he finds a journal style book in it. Opening it, he finds the title of the book is The Love Dare.

In it is a call to a 40 day journey to work on turning around his marriage.

Needless to say, his journey is extremely painful and there are many struggles to overcome including his feelings of hopelessness for his marriage.

This is a good movie for husband and wife to sit down together and watch after the kids have gone to bed. That is, this is a movie for adults, or perhaps young adults mature enough to understand the dynamics of a relationship breakdown.

Take the time to listen with the heart, mind, and spirit to the message the Holy Spirit wants to share while watching the movie. Pray together before the movie starts. If nothing comes to mind or heart, pray a decade of the Rosary, or even an Our Father together to start off in the right space.

When the movie has finished, don't talk. Let the Holy Spirit's message sink in and then turn to each other and pray at least the Our Father together before starting a conversation.

Take the time to talk. If the conversation is fruitful, then keep it going. The grace will be there to deal with what tomorrow has to bring when tomorrow comes.

The duty of the moment is to discover what the Holy Spirit has placed on both hearts and pray and talk about it together.

If there is indeed conflict within the marriage, then this is an opportune time to humble ourselves before our husband or wife, take responsibility for our contributions to the conflict, and ask for forgiveness.

Marriage is a journey of love and sacrifice that is truly rewarding. We need to take the time to actually recognize the rewards!

Pax!

John Everett

Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Reading and life part 2.

I took a number of years off from reading. The exceptions being the Scriptures and the writings of a few of my very favourite saints. St. John of the Cross is at the top of my list. I love praying over his works and delving into his mystical wisdom.

That time off ended when I entered into the seminary. This was the biggest step of my life in the Journey with the Lord at that time. That was back in 1996.

Studying theology rewoke in me the hunger to delve into God's mysteries via the various course reading materials. I realized that I had been missing something over the previous number of years. I love to read! And, I really love to read and discover God!

The formation I received during my two year stay in the seminary taught me to augment the relationship I had with God with what I was learning. I could now bring what I was learning directly into my heart. This isn't to say that the process of absorbing what I was learning was a one step one that happened instantly. On the contrary, the process can take a lot of prayer and time.

Now, almost ten years later, I still love to read. Although now, I read what I sense the Lord is calling me to read and discuss it with him in our quiet times together.

Pax vobis,

J.E.

Reading and life.

I went through my initial conversion experience to Catholicism at the Easter Vigil celebration in 1989. For the year preceding that evening and for the next three years or so following it I read voraciously. Everything and anything that I could get my hands on.

I spent a lot of time with St. Thomas Aquinas and his Summa Theologica, with Spirago and Clark in the Catechism Explained, Fr. Hardon's Catholic Catechism, books on spiritual warfare, Fr. Schouppe's Purgatory, Apologetics, and the list goes on and on.

I was fortunate that I worked the night audit shift in one of our local hotels so I could spend most of my time reading.

A friend of mine and I were chatting one day about the various books we had read and who our favourite authors were. At one point, he indicated to me that he had stopped reading books a number of years ago. When I asked him why, he told me there were a number of reasons. One was that he realized that the more he knew the less he actually knew, he also realized that the more knowledge he had the more he was responsible for that knowledge, and finally that one could not live one's life out of a book.

That conversation left a very deep impression on me. I looked back over the last few years at that time and realized that I was spending a very significant portion of my time reading. I went to the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament to ask Him what I should do.

I am not sure how long I was there with Him, but I came away with a very deep peace in my heart with the decisions we made together there.

I was to take everything that I had learned over the last number of years and learn to apply that knowledge. I was to take responsibility for what I knew and make sure that I responded to every life situation in the way that the Lord would expect me to. And lastly, as I learned to apply the knowledge to my daily life, I needed to allow it to embed itself into my heart.

Now, I look back on that moment as one of the most significant moments in my Journey with the Lord. Using my friend at that time He spoke a clear call to action. It is that action that lead me to be in the various places that the Lord needed me to be in to make the decisions that would direct my entire life.

Pax vobis,

J.E.