Year of Faith Movie Event

Last year I read The Restless Flame: A Novel About St. Augustine, by Louis de Wohl.  I had read brief biographies about St. Augustine and St. Monica before, but this book gave me a deeper sense of the profound conversion Augustine experienced from his youth as a pagan who had little respect for “womanly” matters, like the Catholic faith of his mother.  He studied rhetoric in Carthage and was a skilled orator who argued against Catholicism.  St. Monica never stopped praying for her son, and St. Ambrose also had a strong influence on his powerful conversion.  Once Augustine met the Truth in the person of Jesus, he was baptized and later went on to become Bishop of Hippo and one of the first four saints to be declared Doctors of the Church.  

When Ignatius Press promoted its film Restless Heart: The Confessions of St. Augustine, I recognized a great opportunity for our parish and the San Damiano Youth Group to share a Year of Faith event with the Diocese of Springfield.  The film is currently only available in limited release through sponsored screenings.

In Pope Benedict XVI’s Apostolic Letter introducing the Year of Faith, he calls the faithful to participate in the New Evangelization.  The letter specifically mentions that

Saint Augustine tells us, “[Believers] strengthen themselves by believing”. Pope Benedicts says, ‘The saintly Bishop of Hippo had good reason to express himself in this way. As we know, his life was a continual search for the beauty of the faith until such time as his heart would find rest in God. His extensive writings, in which he explains the importance of believing and the truth of the faith, continue even now to form a heritage of incomparable riches, and they still help many people in search of God to find the right path towards the “door of faith”.

After St. Paul, St. Augustine of Hippo is one of the most profound conversion stories in our Church history.  His timeless story, from the early 5th Century, speaks to those living in the 21st Century of the Truth, Jesus Christ.  One of my favorite scenes was a debate between the Catholics and the Donatists about which teachings were the true faith.  

Restless Heart: The Confessions of St. Augustine will be presented in the St. Stanislaus School Gym in Chicopee, Massachusetts, on Saturday, January 19 at 7:30 p.m.  Tickets are $10 each and can be purchased at both the St. Stanislaus School and at the Parish Office as well as at the door.  For more information about the film the website is www.restlessheartfilm.com.