Wednesday, November 30, 2022

Prayer in The New Mutants

There is not a lot in The New Mutants film worth mentioning. It's not a good movie. 

However, there is an odd bit in a scene that I noticed. Maisie Williams' character Rahne is presented to us as a character of religious faith. In one scene, she is shown entering an empty church, and confessing her sins, although there is no priest with her. I interpreted this as confirming the sincerity of her faith, engaging in religious practice despite the lack of support. Despite the lack of a priest. 

Which makes a scene towards the end of the film stand out. During the climactic battle, Rahne enters the confessional again, to hide, and begins to pray. There is some editing here, some cutting back and forth, but the totality of her prayer is "Hail Mary, full of grace, blessed art thou amongst women, pray for us sinners now and in the hour of our death. Amen."

The scene confirms Rahne's faith, enriching her character. And for what it does, it works. It's fine.

However, the prayer cuts out the two most Jesus-centric aspects of the prayer. What she does not say is " ... and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God ... " They eliminated both the words "Jesus" and "God." In a movie that had little interesting in it, THAT stood out.

I saw the movie on HBO, so I believe the version I saw was the full original version. Also, the movie was very short, barely 90 minutes, so I doubt those 14 words for time.



Sunday, November 27, 2022

Advent: Week 1

The first candle of Advent is called the "Hope Candle."It is reflective of the overall theme of the season, which is preparing for Christmas. Even in a world full of hate, division, bias, and disease, it can be hard to hold on to hope. 

It's important to remember that the biblical version of "hope" is different than a desire for our life circumstances to change. It's more like waiting for God to appear in the midst of all your stuff. It’s the tension of living through the junk of "now" while holding onto the expectation that the "not yet" of God can break into this world and give us peace. 

The arrival of Jesus is evidence of this in-breaking of God to our world. 

This is a good verse to recall as we walk through the first week of Advent, from Romans 15:13

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace, as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit”