Seconded! 12 years of Catholic school in the 60s and 70s and somehow I missed this classic!
Devout but mostly-or-entirely home-bound (and yes, likely really old :D) Catholics may enjoy watching EWTN because they are not capable of going to church. Until she moved in with my parents a couple of years ago, my grandma would occasionally not be able to go to Sunday Mass (illness, arthritis pain, bad weather, etc.) and so she’d watch Sunday Mass on EWTN. Sure, it’s not an Official Mass Alternative that “really” counts the same, but she knows that.
Even if it’s not Mass and is just recitation of the rosary or something, it’s still some way to feel connected and and not quite so isolated. Much of Catholic worship really is done communally, with set rituals, call-and-response, etc. and you can’t recreate that when you’re all alone.
Eh, hmm? Ah, yes, my son, that exactly, the point of the story. After the boy goes through all that suffering . . . all that horrible, terrifying suffering . . . such sweet suffering . . . he gets to . . . what was that again?
I guess that was a dumb question. Sorry.
Yes, I saw that movie in grade school. The Catholic Church really really loves suffering.
Someone please remind me, again, why the Marquis de Sade was considered an impious person in his day?
We got to watch The Mission, IIRC. Oh, and then *The Sound of Music *in eight grade, which was just cruel.
Like **zweisamkeit **said, it’s for people who can’t get out of the house. On Sundays when my maternal grandparents can’t make it to Mass, they’ll stay in and watch it on the TV. Not as good as the real thing, but I guess the idea is that God knows that you tried.
I had to read this in high school Spanish as well. The ending really creeped me out too. The Christ figure tells Marcelino to sleep, and he does, only it’s the sleep of death. Then all the monks who witness it go “It’s a miracle!” I hadn’t realized there was a movie version, but I was a Lutheran kid, so we didn’t get that stuff.
Well, if the kid was a little shit…
Bitten by a scorpion as a child, raised in a monastery…?
Sounds like the origin story of a superhero named “Brother Stinger”.
Is miracle status also afforded to crib death?
Sounds less like a superhero and more like a luchador.
This thread brought back memories of my own Catholic childhood. I remember this movie and the “Marcelino, pan y vino” song. Maybe this is why huge, bloody crucifixes creep me out to this very day.
What are you, from fuckin’ Mars?!
If they had actually used an actor to portray Christ, it wouldn’t have been as creepy. It was the puppet crucifix that freaked me out. I mean, you wouldn’t have seen His face and all, but it would have looked at least like a real Jesus, not some freaky puppet.
I think the reason it was a “miracle” is that Marcelino wanted to meet his parents, who died when he was a baby, or something like that?
Most likely from southern Europe or Latin America.
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/italy/assisi-san-damiano-pictures/slides/xti_1156.htm
You are warned, images like that are the direct inspiration that Mel Gibson got for the images in “The Passion of the Christ”
See Uncanny Valley.
My father watches it sometime when they have “Joy of Music” on, or something like that. (They sometimes do PBS type orchestra specials, if it’s religious pieces, like Handel’s Messiah)
“The one good thing ever to come out of religion was the music.”
– George Carlin
All I gathered from the OP is that Guinastasia is still a hilariously broken individual.