What was I thinking???

I don’t get cable television in the apartment I stay at in Fresno and, quite frankly, even if I did the quality of programming these days is not to my taste.  Is it me, or is everything “reality TV”?  By that I mean is everything written to come off as “real” life?  The only show I watch with any regularity is “Storage Wars” and I watch it simply because of its campiness and humor.  I’ve been in the storage business for about 20 years now, and the only thing real about those “auctions” is the locations.  Before that show came on, the average price for an auctioned room would be about $35.  Now, even the crummiest rooms go for about $100.  I actually made $13,000 at one of my recent auctions!  But the customer who owned the 5 rooms that were auctioned off owed us about $15,000 dollars, so it was still a loss.

All of that chatter to set up the fact that I bought a DVD player for my TV so I can watch what I want to watch when I want to watch it from now on.   I went to the catholic goods store here in Fresno to see what they might have.  My favorite TV channel is EWTN, and they are always promoting DVDs that are produced to help one grow in the faith.  I thought I might find something to watch tonight.

There was not much of a selection, I’m sorry to say.  I did pick up two movies, however.  The first is titled, “Mary of Nazareth”.  Since it is “Mary’s month”, I thought it might be nice to watch a Marian-themed movie.  The other DVD I bought is “Romero”.  I bought it because one of Sarah’s Facebook posts yesterday mentioned him, and he’s been on my mind ever since.

I got home after dinner and decided to watch “Mary of Nazareth”.  I figured since I bought it in a catholic goods store, it would be fairly orthodox and at the very least treat Our Lady with respect and reverence.  After watching it I didn’t quite know what to think of it.  I have certain perceptions of the Holy Family and I often think about what everyday life was like in their household as Jesus was “learning” His humanity.  This video took some artistic license that I wouldn’t necessarily agree with, but it was not against Catholic teaching as I know it either.  For instance the “courtship” of Joseph and Mary was a bit off from my interpretation of traditional catholic teaching.  And as with any film that is based on all 4 of the Gospels instead of just one, the parables and miracles and important messages of Jesus, as well as the Passion of Christ were all mixed up as far as the chronology of those events was concerned.  And it treated the whole Bread of Life discourse (John 6) with a Protestant viewpoint, and way out of chronological and biblical order.

On the other hand, the film was just what I needed to wake me up.  I’ve been pretty dry in the meditation department lately when saying my rosary.  As I was watching, I thought “This movie is supposed to be about Mary.  Why are they concentrating on Jesus so much?”  Sometimes I’m just so dense.  I’m the one who’s always spouting off about saying the rosary and why Mary asks us to say it.  It’s not about her.  It’s all about HIM. That’s enough for now.  I have to say my rosary.