Latest / The LIVing Room with Liv Harrison / Harrison Ford Walked Past the Journalists to Greet This Sister | Sr. Nancy Usselmann

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Harrison Ford Walked Past the Journalists to Greet This Sister | Sr. Nancy Usselmann · The LIVing Room with Liv Harrison

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: One time I went to a movie that Harrison Ford was in.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_01: So I go to the press junket.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's at a hotel in Beverly Hills, and we go to the room, and there's all these other uh journalists.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: And Harrison Ford walks in.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: Well, what does he do?
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: He comes right to the nuns and he's like, Hi, sister, nice to meet you, sister.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: Nice to meet you.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I felt so bad for the other journalist.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so interesting.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like he called his sister.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: My question was something related, and I can't even remember the exact question, but it is something about the spiritual experience within the film.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: And he's like, Well, you know, sister, I am a product of a Catholic mother and a Jewish father.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: I said, You are?
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, I didn't have any idea.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: No idea.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: So he explained a little bit about that.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: He's probably not practicing anything now, but he finds God in the spiritual experience.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: He shared that how he finds God in his in these moments.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: And were you really I totally I I've always been a media lover.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: Always movies, music, books, everything.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: Everything.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: I think I watched so much TV, I don't know how I got away with that with my mother.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I think I'd waited until she got out of the house and then I would like watch hours on TV.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know why.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: It just I watched all the old movies.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: Like so like what?
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_02: What are some of your what are some of your go-to old movies?
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I mean, I watched all the old war films with my dad.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: Really?
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: So I like when when people say, you know, war films, they they don't bother me.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: The the violence and war of yeah.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's like I got used to that right away as a kid.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I loved it.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, watched all The Great Escape, uh, watched The Bridge Over the River Kwai.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: That's a classic.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: Watched, oh my gosh, I can't even remember the there's so many amazing films.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: Free films like that, the classics.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: And then and then grew up watching, you know, all the old Elvis films too.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: So but they were on TV.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: So you gotta realize, okay, I'm the time when there was TV before the internet.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_02: And when you had to walk over to the TV and change the channel.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_02: Do you remember that for remote?
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_02: God, that was the worst.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: I found the channel that had just all these old movies.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: So I watch all the old Elvis movies.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: All the old Grace Kelly movies.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: I watch all the, you know.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_02: I love I love Ginger Rogers.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, Ginger Rogers.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_02: He was just and Fred of Square.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_02: They're my favorite.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_02: They're just fabulous.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I like uh my favorite Elvis is it happened at the World's Fair.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_02: That's my favorite one.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_02: See the problem is I don't remember.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_02: Or GI Blues.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_02: I like G.I.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_02: blues also.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_02: They're so cute in that one.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway, sorry, I can talk about Elvis all day.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_02: From food Elvis.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_02: So, okay.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_02: So, did you think you were gonna go into that industry?
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_02: You didn't?
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: Well, okay, I gotta say, in high school, I was thinking, where am I gonna go to college?
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: What am I gonna do?
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: I I was kind of not sure.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: But my sisters were looking, we're talking.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: I have two older sisters, and they were saying one became a nurse.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and when I'm like, there is no way I'm going into medical anything.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: That is just not me.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't want to be a teacher, I didn't want to do anything.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_01: So I was like, well, computer science.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: I was kind of the beginning, and so I was like, let me go to computer science.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: That sounds good.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: So, and I started applying for all these colleges and everything.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: In the meantime, I we knew many religious sisters.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, St.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: Louis is known as the realm of the West, right?
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, really?
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: Did you know that?
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't know that.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: Because, well, one of the reasons is that there's so many religious orders had even mother religious motherhouses there, and so many religious orders had uh places in St.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: Louis.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: And there's over thirty well there were at that time, and there's I think there still are more than 35 Catholic high school, I think almost 40 Catholic high schools, each one run by a different religious order.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: Almost all are still to this day, all boy or all-girl schools.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: They are not only two are co-ed, I think.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow, but yeah, but there are all these Catholic high schools all over St.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: Louis.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: St.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: Louis is a very Catholic town.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: I had no churches are like five minutes from each other, you know.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: And they still have Starbucks.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: Right, exactly.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_02: It's Catholic churches.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: So um we knew many different religious.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: I even, you know, worked with the missionaries of charity and did some volunteer work with them.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, this was while I was in high school, and I knew the uh uh apostles of the sacred heart, they were our teachers.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I knew the Carmelites, we'd go to their Carmelite Novena.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, my family's very Catholic.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: We go to the Catholic, um, we go to the Benedictines for Eucharist Generation, you know.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, my dad.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: Well, on a Sunday afternoon, he'd be like, We're gonna go take a visit, make a visit with Jesus.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: And we'll all be like, No, let's go, we gotta go home.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: And he'd be like, No, we're going in here.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: And he, he, you know, that's him and my mom both were like, you know, no, we need to spend time there.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: And we spend like 30, 40 minutes there, and then we go home.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: So we really, yeah, he we really had that experience.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: So I knew many different religions, but never felt attracted to it.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, that's not for me.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: I remember the sisters, uh, the Carmelites, they they're the cloistered, and behind the grill, they were like, Oh, they saw all of myself, my two sisters, and all our cousins.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: We have a lot of girl cousins around the same age.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: So we'd go and visit them at the girl cousin, we thought it was so cool, but they'd be like, Oh, don't you want to become a Carmelite?
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: I'd be like, No, sister, I cannot be silent.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: That is not gonna happen.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: And then the missionaries of charity said to me, Don't you want, Nancy?
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: Don't you want to become a missionary charity?
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: I saw they slept on the floor.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, no, that's not gonna happen.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: I was very precocious.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't like to be like, sleeping on the floor for me.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's not happening.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, no, no, I had no problem saying no.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: But when I met the daughters of St.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: Paul, and it was because of a cousin of mine, she's a year older than me, and she always thought of becoming a sister since like the third grade.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: And she's like, she was driving downtown St.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: Louis.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, the well, the the point about her being a sister, we always used to say this.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: Uh she I hope she doesn't listen to this podcast.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um she's not, don't worry, it's fine, it's a safe space.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: No, we used to tease her, and she would remember this.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: We used to tease her, say, Oh, yeah, yeah, you should become a sister because you know, she can barely take care of yourself, you know.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: She's a very, you know, how can you take care of a family husband and a family?
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, becoming the nun, and the rest of us will go get married.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: And um, but so she was driving downtown St.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: Louis and saw that there was a Catholic bookstore.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: So she goes in and saw that there were nuns running the sword.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, oh, interesting.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, so she was interested.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I guess whenever she purchased something, they asked her, Hey, did you did she ever think of becoming a sister?
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: And she said yes.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: And so they invited her to a retreat day and she goes, Great, can I bring all my cousins?
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, they loved her.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what?
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: Why now we have to go?
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: You you told them that we were gonna go.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: Now we have to go.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: So we go.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: And as soon as I walked into this center, it was the daughters of St.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: Paul.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: First thing I saw, they use movies, music, books, media to communicate Jesus.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, okay, well, this is different.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: I still wasn't thinking this was for me, but I just like, oh, this is so cool.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um but then they worked on me.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: Did they for a couple years?
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: So it took a while.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they had to keep calling me every month, and I would find any excuse not to go to the retreat days, you know.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: And and my mom said, You can't lie to a nun.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: I was gonna say, I just don't feel like going.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: She goes, You can't tell them that.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: Did your cousin become a sister?
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: So after a couple years, uh, we kept going and you know, and then we visited the motherhouse in Boston, yeah, which was a really powerful experience.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I still didn't feel convinced that this was for me until the sisters gave me a prayer card, and it was to Mary Queen of Apostles, and it was a prayer to know one's own vocation.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: So at that time in high school, I was going to I was starting to go a little bit more to daily mass.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I uh I went to a Catholic school, but I I I started going to daily mass after school.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I would pray this prayer card and it says, you know, help me marry to know my vocation.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so I would add in parentheses, as long as it's not a nun.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I would say that after communion.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, Well, that's kind of the wrong prayer to say, because you know, obviously she was like, Yeah, yeah, right.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: It was soon after that.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um I this is her I just felt this inspiration to to go ahead.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: And my cousin said she wanted to enter.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: She goes, Enter with me.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: And this is at the end of high school, is at the end of high school, and she's like, Enter with me.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, Oh, okay, yeah, let's do this.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know what came over me.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: So at the end of high school, at the end of high school, so we entered together.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my family, they don't remember this, but I remember this.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: They were all like, Are you sure you're gonna do this?
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: Like, are you sure NASA you can do this?
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like, they didn't think.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I was big into sports, I was into soccer, I was playing on two teams at once.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: I was like in and or outdoor, I was I was a very active person.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I they say, Are you sure you want to do this?
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, Yes.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: And but they really thought, you know, I'd probably come back after a couple months in the convent.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: Like, okay, that's not really for her.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: They all had bets going.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: When is Nancy coming out?
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: They never told me that, but so but after three months, I stayed.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: My cousin left.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: I I'm continue to this day, and she got married and has eight kids.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_02: No, oh my gosh, that's amazing.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_02: One we thought she couldn't handle one.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_02: And she's like, I'll show you guys.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_02: She did.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_02: Rolled up her sleeves.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_02: She's like, Here we go.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_02: She's amazing.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_02: And and but that's so cool that she's also part of your story, though.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_02: Where does she live?
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_02: Is she close to Michigan?
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_02: She's in Michigan, okay.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_02: So it's not too close to are you in Orange County?
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_02: Where no, I'm in Los Angeles in Culver City, so yeah.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_02: So is there a motherhouse there as well?
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_02: No, Boston.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: Is there only one motherhouse per like a province?
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: So our province is the whole US and Canada, and our province motherhouse is in is in Boston, but the general house is in Rome.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: So that's for the whole world because we're a pontifical uh congregation.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, that means we are we are all all over the world, and we're only answerable to the Holy See.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: So as a pontifical congregation.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: So our mother general is our highest authority after her.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's the Pope.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: So we it yeah, yeah.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: So do they get to hang out?
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: Like, are they friends?
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: She did meet him several times.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, so you know it's her name.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: Mother.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: We actually don't use that term.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's not really our thing.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: We we called our sisters sisters.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: Uh superiors are sisters, yeah.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_02: No, that's nice though.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_02: That's so how did you get how did you come to California?
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_02: Like, why are you not in Boston?
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_02: Oh.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I did spend many years in Boston.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: But we had we have locations around around the country, and I spent many years in New York, in uh the DC area.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: I was a little bit in Chicago, many years in Boston.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I was actually the uh CFO of our province.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: So I was the treasurer of our province.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: And um, so I worked several years in administration for for the apostolate and for our province.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: And and then they made me the CFO.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, so I was working with all the real estate brokers, lawyers, you know, everybody under the sun, finance, uh, you know, consultants, everything.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: I was doing stuff I never thought in a million years I would do.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: But um, but I guess I had the personality for it.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: At one point where an attorney said to me, Oh, what law school did you go to?
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: I just laughed.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: I said, didn't.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for asking.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I spent so as a CFO, so we were going through a really uh it was a really challenging time, uh, you know, financially, but in everything.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: That was right at the uh when the world was crashing in 2008.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: So I was the the uh treasurer for our province.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: And after that time, um the provincial, the new provincial said to me, you know, do you uh we're where are you thinking?
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, I want to go to um continue my theology studies.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and I know that they're this they need a sister in uh Redwood City, which is in the Bay Area.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, Oh, I I you know, go there or maybe Virginia, and so she thought about it.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: And so she sent me to Redwood City.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I would, she said, Well, figure out your studies from that point on.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: And um, so I went to to the Bay Area and I I really wanted to go to a place that would have theology and pop culture.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: Well, believe it or not, no Catholic university has that.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: So I went to the Protestant seminary, Fuller Theological Seminary had a degree on theology and pop culture, and they were on the same property as St.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: Patrick's Seminary, the Catholic, you know, seminary in First San Francisco.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so I was able to take classes at the seminary with the seminarians, transferred over to Fuller, and they accepted everything.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: Like and I took classes with Fuller and just back and forth.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the classes was to Sundance Film Festival, and I was like, this is what I want to do.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: But our sister, one of our sisters had already started the Pauline Media Studies in Los Angeles, and she was always trying to get me to take over from her.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: She's like, okay, 20 years, I you need to come and you know take this over.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I loved, I've always been involved in media studies and media literacy education and faith formation.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: So I it was kind of an aside thing that I was doing in other parts of my ministry, and I really wanted to go back to that.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: So I said, but I need my theology now.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: I want to get my master's in theology.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: So I did that.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and then they moved me to um to Los Angeles, where the media studies is.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's really then when I took out that over as director.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, then other people were saying to me, you need to get your doctorate.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, oh my gosh, I just finished.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: So I ended up getting my doctorate at Catholic University of America.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, a doctorate in ministry.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_02: Oh neat.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: So I didn't know that.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, doctor.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: Do we call you sister doctor, doctor sister?
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, maybe just sister.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, great.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so that's really what because it really feeds into what we do about how do we engage with the popular media culture, but from a faith perspective.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's what I go around and teach, and we write about.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: We're filming TV reviewers.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we write about theology and pop culture.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: That's what my first book was about, uh theology and pop, because I couldn't find a Catholic theology of pop culture.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: I had to write one.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, it was all Protestant perspective.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, I think it needed the sacramental vision and it didn't, I couldn't find it.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: So I wrote that.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: So you wrote it.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I did that.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: And then I went um, and in our studies, it's like we realized people need to be understanding the digital culture and how to live well with it because so many parents were struggling.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: What do you do with your kids and social media and TikTok and how do we deal with this?
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: So we were giving a lot of workshops all around the country, really helping parents, helping teachers, helping ministers to integrate faith uh values within their media experience so that it's not just about you know, remove your kid from everything that you don't that you feel harms them, uh, which you do need to do, but uh it's also how do you help them ask the questions so they can be discerning themselves?
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: Because discernment is a process, something we we're not born with.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: We have to learn it.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you have to start with the kids, help them to be discerning, help them to think through, help them to ask the questions of the media so that they're not absorbing every ideology and everything that's coming at them.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so that's really what we teach.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: We call it media mindfulness.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, interesting.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: And then I incorporated that into in my studies, I incorporated it into a faith formation model called Media Mindfulness Catechesis, and it's a model of faith integration with our media use so that when we teach catechesis, we're we're we're really bringing in the popular culture into it, letting that be the starting point of questions, leading you to then catechizing.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: That's incredible.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_02: I love that.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_02: This is so down my alley.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, although I did get married and have kids, so I guess I can't be a sister.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_02: I want to be a I want to be a media nun.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_02: Uh but but maybe the second half of my life.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_02: We'll see.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um, well, no, I want my husband to stick around.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_02: But uh but but you do have a third, what is that called?
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_02: Like a third order that they're it's called the Pauline Cooperator.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: So the cooperators.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: So Daughters of St.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: Paul were one of 10 institutes founded by Blessed James Alberione.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: He was a uh northern Italian diocesan priest who felt the inspiration of the Holy Spirit really when he was a seminarian back in 1900 to 1901, a New Year's Eve, right?
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: At the turn of the century.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, wow.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: And he was a 16-year-old seminarian.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: He felt at time before the Blessed Sacrament in Eucharistic adoration that the Lord was calling him to something special to use the means of today to communicate the gospel, use the media for good.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: Because, you know, there was a lot that was happening in that world uh with the press, you know, people usurping it for evil.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: And he was like, we need to use it for good.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: And he felt that call.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: And so then after he, you know, was ordained a priest and he was the diocesan seminary uh spiritual director for many years for several years, that he started while he was the diocesan seminary director, he are or um spiritual director, he started the Pauline family.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: He started with Society of St.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: Paul and then the Daughters of St.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: Paul and then many other institutes after, and all of them to to really he started with printing presses, just getting little presses and having the the boys and the young women to start learning how to do the diocesan newspaper.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: That's what it started with.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: The bishop gave him the diocesan newspaper and said to start printing, start doing something, you know.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: So it was the press.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: But he had this vision that there was something more.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: So every time there was a new media, so radio, television, film, television.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: He was one of the first biblical filmmakers in Italy in the 1930s.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_01: He started telling doing short films, um, you know, taking on every means possible, and not only the men, but the women as well, which was radical.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that is radical.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: Turn of the century.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for sure.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: They were found in 1915.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: That was most women religious weren't even driving cars.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't even think about that.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: And he had us driving cars and going from place to place and you know, riding bicycles and having books and and visiting parishes and visiting families and schools and and printing Bibles.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_01: We printed in more than 50 languages, and you know, uh just opened little bookstores.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_01: That's how it all started.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: I wonder what he would think of today with social media in a candy store.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_01: Like really, he would be like internet, like everything.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: Take it on, take it on, take it on for the good, always for the gospel.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_02: For the good.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: So for us, it's like use the means of today to communicate the gospel in any way that mean that's that's available to us.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_02: How do you so I feel like you guys um have to kind of I don't know how you even keep up with it?
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_02: I can't keep up with it.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm a mom of two of my kids are old, and I'm like, my daughter hates me because I won't let her have Instagram yet.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_02: She's 16, she's the only one without Instagram.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_02: It's probably smart, apparently.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, I mean, trying to keep up with the trends, how do you guys stay ahead of all the change that's coming or that is happening in real time?
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's challenging.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: So then teach us.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's challenging, but that's why we have the Pawnee Media Studies.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: That's what we do from the Media Studies Center.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_01: We really keep up on all the trends and everything that's out there and help and communicate that to others and help them to understand, help them to think through, help them to be medium mindful of this, even this technology, like AI, and now creating new new formation guides and helping people and formation platforms.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: We call it catholicfaithai.com to help people to think through their AI use and not just like take it on for every pastoral initiative, even on the church level, like on a parish level.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_01: Do we just use AI for evangelization and let it do all our work for us?
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: Or do we stop and think, what is what are we using this for?
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_01: How are we using this as a tool?
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: Is it usurping our thought and our creativity?
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: Or, you know, and especially in teaching catechesis, are we just like leaving it to AI to teach somebody rather than us?
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_01: Because real catechesis and evangelization comes from the witness of a lived Christian life.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: And that can't be replicated by a machine.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_02: No, it can't.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: So you have to ask those questions.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: We have to be thinking and forming people on this.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_02: Socratic method, like thinking and and and finding the answer on your and discussing it together and you know, talk about think about these questions and praying through it.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: That can't forget the prayer aspect.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: We have to pray through our media use.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: And that was a very important part of Blessed James Alberiani's charism is that we pray for all who work in the media experience.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: Now, now we don't just say some prayers, which he wrote many prayers.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Media prayers.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_01: But we pray daily for everyone who is in the media and media creators, producers, podcasters, directors, writers, actors.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: And every time we meet them, we tell them you have a group of nuns, a whole order that is just praying for you.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_02: That's beautiful.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: And also praying in reparation for the evil that's present in the media.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: That was also part of the charism that he gave us.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_02: And you have some stories with that, like on red carpets of lots of stories.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_02: Of big names that you have gone up to instead that we're praying for you.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, I have.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_02: Do you mind sharing some of your favorite?
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you've met them all.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_02: I well, I've met not all, but I've met some.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_02: You've met a lot, not just Catholics.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you're on a lot of red carpet, you're at a lot of events.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, share a couple of stories.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, kids, share the fun stories.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_02: Let's get to the fun.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_02: All right, get your popcorn.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_02: This is where it gets fun.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_02: All right, sister.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_01: So because I'm a film and TV reviewer, I get invited sometimes to red carpet premieres and uh press junkets and different events like that.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: And so, because I write and I'm journalists and write about them.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, so one time I went to a movie that Harrison Ford was in.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so I go to the press junket.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's at a hotel in Beverly Hills, and we go to the room, and there's all these other uh journalists, and they they everyone does this differently, but this was like a big room, and they had a uh like a conference table.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: And so it was probably about I'd say 10 journalists there.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_01: And it was me and another sister, and they have us all sitting around the table, and Harrison Ford walks in.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_01: Well, what does he do?
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_01: He comes right to the nuns and he's like, Hi, sister, nice to meet you, sister, nice to meet you.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I felt so bad for the other journalists.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_01: But I I you know, yeah, so interesting.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: Like he's called his sister, which many people are just gonna say, how did he even know what to do?
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of people don't.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_01: They just like most of them are looking at us like, okay, hi.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but no, he comes right to us, and then we all sit down and and and the journalists start asking questions.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: So my question was something related, and I can't even remember the exact question, but it is something about the spiritual experience within the film.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: And he's like, Well, you know, sister, I am a product of a Catholic mother and a Jewish father.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_01: I said, You are?
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, I didn't have any idea.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: No idea.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, so he explained a little bit about that, and then he went on to say, Okay, he's probably not practicing anything now, but he finds God in the spiritual experience and in nature.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_01: And this film was specifically had a lot of nature experiences, so uh and scenes.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so he shared that how he finds God in his in these moments, and I it just became a really profound spiritual sharing at the end.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, whoa, you know, and most of these journalists they ask, I'm sorry, superficial questions, and you could tell his annoyance with them, like he gets annoyed, and I would too.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you know, come on, he's in his 80s, and I was like, you know, yeah, he's still you feel like what does it feel like to be a sex symbol?
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_01: And he's like, you know, what are we doing?
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_01: I know, yeah, yeah.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: And he gets so annoyed by things like that, and I can understand why.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_01: But anyway, afterwards, um, he comes over right to us, and I, you know, say goodbye, grab his hand, and I said, Thank you so much.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, really appreciate it.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I just want to let you know that there's a whole group of nuns who are praying for you.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: This is what we do.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: We pray for all who work in the media.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_01: And he did this, no kidding.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: He was holding my hand, he put his head down and has closed his eyes, and he said, That means more to me than you know.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_01: Harrison Ford.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted to cry.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_01: Harrison Ford.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_01: You don't know what somebody's going through, right?
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_01: We hold up these celebrities and we think, oh, they're other than.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_01: No, they're not.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: They're human beings like us.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_01: And probably with more struggles because they are always in the limelight.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, and I think that means something to them.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_01: That we pray for you.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_01: Almost everyone I say that to in Hollywood, anywhere, because I meet them not just in Hollywood, but all over the place.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_01: They're like, thank you.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_01: Whether they're Catholic or not, it doesn't matter.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_01: It means the world.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, George Clooney.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: So when he kept seeing me on the red carpet, that was for uh a movie.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_01: He was coming down the line and I was squished in between MGM, Amazon, and Entertainment Tonight, you know, and the red carpet's tiny like spaces.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_01: I was literally squished in between the two.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_01: And he comes down and he's like at the guy with entertainment tonight.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_01: And he keeps and he kept talking to the guy, but he kept looking over to me and he would say, Right, sister?
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: What do you think, sister?
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, Oh gosh, that poor guy was getting this all on his camera.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: George Clooney.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_01: So then he comes down to me and he's like, Sister, to meet you.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, Oh, good to meet you too.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I just said to him, you know what?
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_01: Can I take a picture?
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_01: Because you know, our superior general in Rome is a huge fan.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I just want to make her jealous.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, of course, we took a picture.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: I sent it to her.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_01: I sent it to her.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: And she goes, I'm so jealous.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_02: So did you tell him that you're praying for him?
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_02: Did you tell him?
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_01: Well, first he comes to be a sister.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_01: I know I might remember my Latin.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_01: I was an altar boy.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, okay, yeah, I know he's not praying to me now either.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, so when he said something in Latin, and I said, Well, you probably know more Latin than I do.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_01: And he started, that's not possible.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, oh, you'd be surprised.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_01: I had four years of Latin in high school, don't remember a thing.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_01: No, I said that's credible though.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_01: But anyway, it was kind of a fun joke we were talking about.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: That's really cool.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but also shared very deeply about the film as I asked questions really about the spiritual aspects and what does it say about the human person?
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, that's what these celebrities want to talk about.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_01: They want to talk about the depth in their story, right?
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_01: They don't want to remain superficial, right?
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: They're the opposite of what people think they are.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_01: They actually, they're artists, they have depth and they have spiritual depth.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_01: Whether they're practicing in their faith or not, like George Cliny's not, I know that, but he has something there.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: And when I told them we're praying for you, you have a whole group of nodes praying, he's like, Thank you.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: But I think it shocked him.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a little bit sure.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sure we're okay.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of people do a lot of things for George Cliny, and it might not be prayer.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_02: So to have somebody praying is probably very unique for him.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_02: I that's my guess.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that they really appreciate it.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sure they do no, and that makes sense.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_01: I've actually had other journalists on the red carpet who are interviewing interview me.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: That's hilarious.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_02: They're like, Sister, can I have an interview with you?
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_02: Good for them.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_02: And they should.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_02: And they should, because you are represent- I mean, you're exactly what what we're talking about, especially, you know, right now we're at the Knapp Institute, right?
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_02: And we were at the arts and culture, you know, festival and talking about how we have these gifts and these stories to tell.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_02: And then it all goes back to the glory of God.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_02: Like one of my favorite films is not a Catholic film.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_02: And it's not, it's a secular film, it's contact.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know if you're familiar with that.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_02: I love that movie.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_02: That's a great movie, too.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_02: In my opinion, I think that's the most religious film that's ever been made.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_02: I really gravity is along with that similar style and yeah, content.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_02: It's just beautiful, and you can you can find these deep spiritual nuggets that go to your faith from something that you wouldn't expect, you know, a movie about aliens or a movie about whatever.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: Even Project Hail Mary.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, now come on.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_02: Hail Mary full of grace.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_02: How fabulous is that film?
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_02: That movie is just but yeah, that's the whole point.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: We can look deeply because we have a Catholic perspective, a Catholic worldview, we can like grasp deeper elements from stories, especially from film and the visuals, and notice the symbols and signs.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_01: And what does that mean?
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_01: And it gives us deeper meaning to the film, even if even if the filmmaker didn't intend it.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_01: Because it's how we see the world, right?
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_01: We see water, we see cleansing, we see baptism, we see like something new, right?
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we we see uh fire, whatever.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that can be um burning, but yet at the same time offering light and and a pathway.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so yeah, we we can have this sacramental vision that gives a whole different perspective.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_01: And when you have a a filmmaker or a visual artist who understands the sacramental worldview, um, their art can speak to profound and depths and and levels that something else can't.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I love that.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_02: And you guys, what one of my favorite things that that you offer um is your media retreats.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yes.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_02: You have for people who are in the industry.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, you have it in Boston, you have it in Malibu.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, which I'm sorry.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_02: If you can't find Jesus in Malibu, I don't know.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_02: It's breathtaking.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_02: But anyway, not the bosses and breathtaking, but in a different way.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um, have you, in your personal experience, have you seen how you've had to adjust what that retreat offers, what what people in media are needing today?
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um has it changed?
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_01: I I it hasn't like changed radically uh what we're seeing because so many people have now come on these retail these retreats and they're like it it changes their whole perspective of their life and their work as artists and creators.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_01: And um, they just never thought to integrate their creative work with their spiritual lives, and yet that's what we're offering them.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_01: We're offering them a media spirituality, which is really our Pauline charisme.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_01: We're sharing that with them and saying you can live this within your life and within your profound relationship with Christ, and it can spill out into every bit that you do, everything you create.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_01: And everybody comes away kind of like blown away, like this is for real.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_01: Like I love it.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_01: I got to go last year and I loved it.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so we haven't we've shifted a little bit the format, a little bit, but really we just keep getting the the theme to go deeper and deeper.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_01: So last year's was the theme of beauty, like the via pulcritinist.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_01: This year is gonna be on seeking the good um and telling the good.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um I love that.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so we're gonna talk about different aspects of how we live this Catholic imagination within our lives as media professionals.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_02: That's beautiful.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_02: I love that you pour into those who, and I said we talked about this earlier um off camera, but that what you do is you pour into those who are pouring into others as well.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_02: And y'all do it the best.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_02: I have to say, sister, this has been an amazing conversation.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_02: I could talk to you forever.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_02: I know.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_02: I I we always we always get to talking, and I love it.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_02: I want to ask you one last question.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um, how can we be praying for you specifically?
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_02: Is there any form of prayer, like anything um specific that you need in your life right now that we can offer for you?
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I always say pray for vocations for to the daughters of St.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_01: Paul because we need more media apostles.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_01: We do.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_01: And we need more consecrated sisters and media apostles to help in the formation of the creatives in the world.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we can only be spread so far, but we want we want to be able to reach as many people as possible.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_01: So we have three postulants, we have two novices, we have three more postulates entering, but keep praying because they're there.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_01: There's vocations.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, that they can be great media apostles as well.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_01: After the example of blessed James Alberione, who has given us the scharism.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_01: Really in the in the vein of St.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_01: Paul the Apostle, the great media apostle, right?
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_01: The first media apostle.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the OG.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_01: Because he like, you know, he went and traveled all over the ancient world, but he also wrote letters.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, I can't reach you all, but I'm gonna write parchment scrolls.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_01: The great letters of the New Testament that we have because of him.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_02: So, okay, the creatives that you come across, they need formation because they're facing a lot of things that are out in the world and it's changing so quickly.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_02: And now you kind of touched on it a little bit earlier, but AI and all the things that they're facing.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_02: What tell me more about that?
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_02: Can you go a little bit deeper into what that what that is, what that looks like, and and how you know, sorry, I'll let you talk.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_01: Sure, no, no, no problem.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and there's many different facets to that too, because um, I think a lot of creatives, especially in the entertainment industry, which is where I am in Hollywood, and I know a lot of people in the industry, is the challenge of them uh called upon to compromise their values and especially their faith values.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a struggle uh sometimes, a lot of times, actually.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, although now it's becoming a little like cool to be faithful, you know, to be people of faith in the industry, although it was not there at all before.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you were really suppressed and pushed down, and so people were pretty quiet about their faith, you know, Protestants, Catholics, they just didn't say much.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but a lot of them, and they've told me I've I've come across so many different scenarios and you know, actors who are called to go on to compromise their values, and they've had to turn down major, major um, you know, opportunities uh because they couldn't do that.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_01: They just they wanted to be faithful to God.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it's also it's so it's that, but it's also forming some of those who feel literally the presence of evil on their set.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_01: We had one man who was a he was a camera operator, came into our center in LA, and he just said, I, you know, I just feel this evil present on the set.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_01: So the sister gave him a bottle of holy water here.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_01: Sprinkle this all around the set when you go tomorrow, you know, the next day.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_01: And he's just and she brought him into the chapel and they prayed together and you know, just helped him through that because he just sensed something wrong, you know, something wrong.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_01: He got to the set the next day, sprinkled the holy water.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_01: And in that, in that episode of this horrible series, he was told by you know the director, quick, move, move, move.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_01: And he had to move this big equipment, um, like of of uh camera equipment and stuff.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_01: And he couldn't do it fast because you have to lock it down.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_01: And um, he wasn't doing it fast enough.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_01: And they basically took him off the set because the director was so irritable, like just oh, horrible person.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, fine, and he left.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, That was your saving grace.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_01: You are off that set, but you were able to sprinkle your holy water in before you left.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_01: But that was that was the answer of the grace to get you off that set to to take care of it.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, but we're so so.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_01: In the formation that we want to offer is to help them live their faith concretely in these experiences, even if it's subtly, they don't have to say to everybody on the set, I'm Catholic, you know, I mean, you know, I'm gonna start bringing the rosary and throwing holly water on you all.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_01: You can do it subtly.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_01: You can just flick it.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_01: You can bring your rosary at the same time, you know.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_01: No, I love that.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_01: But it's helping them to say it's okay.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_01: Like you can be faithful Catholics while also being in this industry.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_01: And like I said, now there is a little opening where that's kind of become okay.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, even somebody who's like big, and she's like this woman I know is like big in the area of of Amazon MGM, and she's very present about her faith.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_01: And if people ask and she says, no, no, I have to go to mask, goodbye, you know, and she'll they respect her, which is a shift, a slight shift that's happening, uh, which is wonderful.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_01: But we're we're helping them to encourage to live their faith in their everyday lives.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_01: So that's the formation we're doing, these retreats.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we also have a group called Catholics and Entertainment in the industry that in Hollywood uh kind of formed with a small team uh of other young adults in the industry, and we bring people together just to pray together.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_01: First of all, you have to be Catholics who pray together and who get to know one another and make those connections, but also just to kind of have fun.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_01: And maybe we do a cinema divina together and we just you know share about our love of uh film or music.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_01: Some people are composers.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so it's it's that way of forming them to create community.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_01: I I like that and they need community because you feel very alone, yeah, very alone in the industry.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_02: It's very lonely at the time.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_02: Very much so.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_01: And so just always helping them to create that sense of communion with one another and within the church.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_02: Well, thank you for doing that.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for doing that.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_02: What's so cool about your work is that you don't just work with people in industry, but you're also working like with parents and and people in, you know, uh Ohio and all over the states trying to navigate as well the media world.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, that really it's you guys are doing a lot.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_02: So, how what does that look like to someone who's listening at home who isn't a famous actress because I think they're busy?
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, what can you tell them?
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_02: How can they form, especially their family or themselves in this digital age of media?
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_01: Well, all of us are media users, all of us are media creators.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_01: We don't realize social media, we're creators.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_01: So we're all actually media developers in many ways.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_01: And so all of us need that prayer, prayer to be uh to help us, first of all, in how we engage with media, how we create the media that we're, you know, doing every day, especially on social media, um, by asking ourselves and really reflecting and discerning like, how am I media mindful?
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_01: What am I doing?
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_01: Why am I doing this?
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, what is it communicating?
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_01: Is it respecting the human person?
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_01: Is it respecting me?
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_01: Is it respecting others before I write that post?
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_01: You know, is this the is this going to help someone else?
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_01: Or is it just, I don't know, just to get my own, you know, perspective out there and not worry about, I don't know, just to kind of be a self-centered kind of focus.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_01: And do my comments, do I write nasty comments to somebody who wrote nasty to me?
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_01: You know, do I respond in the same way?
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we have to stop and reflect about it.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_01: And our industry and the media is just so fast and moving constantly that we can't, it doesn't allow us to stop and reflect.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_01: And yet, as Catholics, as Christians, we need to do that.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_01: We need to step back and and really examine what are we doing and why are we doing this?
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what media mindfulness is really all about.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_01: It's about asking questions, it's about reflecting and discerning about our own media use and praying through our everyday media experience and media use.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_01: So, what I tell people is to do an examination for your online life.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_01: And so, we wrote a lot of prayers there also on our website on bemediamindful.org, and you can get those those media prayers, but do an examination of conscience on your your online experience.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_01: Like, am I really supportive of other people in their in their in their ministry or their life?
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, do I respect do the contents I engage with respect human dignity?
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what do you think?
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_01: Am I engaging with pornography?
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_01: Am I questioning myself on this stuff?
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_01: Am I, you know, um, do I, you know, help other people?
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_01: Is it do I put a false persona out there?
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_01: Or is, you know, is it really who I am?
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_01: So it's asking yourself these questions and praying through our media use.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, taking the time, which we're not doing.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_02: It's tough.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, that's so tough.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_02: But so good.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_02: We will be praying for you.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much for doing this.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_02: I love you too.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_02: Love you too.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_01: God bless you.