Fabulous Movie for Family Movie Night!

The recently re-issued movie, Saint John Baptist De La Salle: Patron Saint of Teachers, is a marvelous movie to watch for Family Movie Night. Starring Mel Ferrer as De La Salle and Fernando Rey as one of his young recruits, the movie is a wonderful overview of De La Salle's life from being named canon at the Cathedral in Rheims at the age of 28 to establishing the Brothers of Christian Schools at 41 and then dying at the age of 68, having established Christian Brother schools throughout France.

De La Salle (1651-1719) was from a wealthy French family, orphaned in the midst of attending seminary. As the eldest, De La Salle was made executor of his father's estate and guardian of his younger brothers and sisters. The movie opens with him and his family in their lavish home and a layman asking him to help set up a school for the poor in Rhiems. As De La Salle commits more and more of his own personal resources to helping educate the poor (as well as teaching teachers to be teachers), he begins to move from being a Courtier Churchman to being a helper of all, educating the poor and rich alike. Once he starts on this path, he never looks back!

The movie is not glitzy, glamorous or even very high tech. Done probably in the 1960s (although I couldn't find an actual date), this movie does its best to tell the story of this man who put others first ... this man who discerned God's will for himself and did it ... this man who ignored the criticism of family and friends to help all people learn! This is a cozy, "Sunday-afternoon family movie" type of movie. It tells a great story (some bit of truth-stretching for story-telling's sake) of a great man.
Mel Ferrer becomes this humble priest, with loving eyes and actions throughout. The viewer has a sense the Ferrer truly understood De La Salle's theology and philosophy -- not playing the role too high-brow or insipid. Fernando Rey starts the movie as a young, tough, street kid and ends up as one of De La Salle's most active brothers. The rest of the cast -- all European actors -- add wonderful support to the movie.

One thing you can always count on with Ignatius Press videos is the booklet that they package with the DVD. The booklet included in this movie includes a detailed biography, information about De La Salle's teaching philosophies (or "pedagogy") , and an overview of the Christian Brothers today (with website links for further information).

Thanks, Ignatius Press for republishing this wonderful look at a man many teachers, especially Catholic school teachers, should try to emulate!

You can purchase this DVD here.

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Disclaimer:  I wrote this review of Saint John Baptist De La Salle for the Tiber River Blogger Review program, created by Aquinas and More Catholic Goods, your source for Baptism Gifts and First Communion Gifts. For more information and to purchase, please visit Aquinas and More Catholic Goods.

Tiber River is the first Catholic book review site, started in 2000 to help you make informed decisions about Catholic book purchases.  I receive free product samples as compensation for writing reviews for Tiber River.






 

Just doesn't get any better than this ...

for helping live the liturgical year: Tan's 2011 Mary and the Saints wall calendar.  I REALLY like this calendar and am anxious to start 2011 so that I can post it in a central spot in our living room.

Published by Tan, this is not just a work of art calendar but also a great way to track (and celebrate) the liturgical year. The calendar (a nice sized 12x12) has a different Marian art picture for each month, with a 12x12 monthly calendar filled with saints' feasts (both Novus Ordo and Tridentine), liturgical year information and other information. This is not the type of calendar for use with tracking schedules -- this is a calendar to exhibit in a central spot in the home or classroom to remember whose feast day or how best to celebrate. I particularly like the image for December -- a large image of Our Lady of Guadalupe -- one of our family's patronal images of the Blessed Mother with a quote of the message of Mary to St. Juan Diego.

The images are beautiful and would make lovely, framed pieces for my husband's classroom -- he does a collage of holy cards, and this would be a great addition to these collages. But he'll need to wait until next December to get his hand on these!

The final page of the calendar includes info on how to pray the rosary and Fatima prayers. This is just a wonderful calendar: printed on quality paper with large classic images of the Blessed Mother. The images also include a scriptural verse, hymn or prayer from the collect of the main feast for that month. I also appreciate that the publishers included more than one saint for each day, rather than limiting the choice to one saint. Each day, as appropriate is marked for fasting, feasting or ember days.

I highly recommend this Catholic calendar -- I can't wait to see next year's edition!

I wrote this review of 2011 Mary and the Saints Wall Calendar for the Tiber River Blogger Review program, created by Aquinas and More Catholic Goods. Tiber River is the first Catholic book review site, started in 2000 to help you make informed decisions about Catholic book purchases. I receive free product samples as compensation for writing reviews for Tiber River.  For more information and to purchase, please visit Aquinas and More Catholic Goods.