Movie Review | Life
3 Lessons From The Nun 2 That Comforted Myself In My Lowest
The life in Catholic convent truly assimilated to the life in Islamic monastery I was in.
The meditations. The prayers. The reading of biographies of Saints. The servanthood of cooking, washing, and serving meals. The hostel or bedroom we shared. The garment we put on. Similar.
No wonder the early Christians were known as the Muslims’ cousins.
That attracted me to watch a movie ‘The Nun 2’. I watched it 5–6 times especially when I felt mentally, physically, and spiritually tired.
I loved it.
At every point where it turned scary, I read countless Hail Mary.
Hail O Mary Full of grace. The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among the women. Blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Holy Mary Mother of God. Pray for us sinners at this hour. And pray for us at the hour of our death. Amen.
I missed my veils. I loved wearing anything in modesty.
And many life battles brought me seeking to understand how to be a believer. Hope would be tough without believing. I related a lot with some part of the movie The Nun 2.
Let me share 3 Lessons İ seen in it at my quietest, lowest point. I shall begin with the brief history from the movie.
Tarascon, France 1956
The story happened in Saint Carta Abyss. The demon hunted for all descendants of Saint Lucie of Syracuse, Patron of the Blind. She was set on fire, but the fire didn’t kill her. She was killed by pagans who gorged her eyes afterward.
And in some resources online, Santa Lucie’s eyes were still alive at the point of her burial. It was a miracle that the eyes did not die and for that the demon wanted it.
These eyes were Santa Lucie’s relic.
Jean Paul Redar, a monk, buried her eyes beneath a chapel in an old monastery turned winery. Subsequently, it reopened as a boarding school.
The demon lived in a French man, Maurice, who travelled around the world. He was in search of the eyes. The only way to find it was to hunt for all Saint Lucie’s descendants.
At that time, Saint Lucie’s descendants were scattered all around the world.
The demon wanted the power given directly from God to the Saints ever since it fell from Grace.
Now, here were what I learned…
Even a servant knows how to treat people with honor and respect.
That was what the French guy, Maurice, replied to the rudeness of the school student who said he was just a servant.
Every place had its own custodian or guardian. They could be your toilet cleaner, security guard, or gardener. And that was why my late spiritual guide told me it would be better being a servant than the king.
You learned not only humility, how small you were in the world, how little you had than others that caused you to contemplate how to flourish…
You would see who were thankful, grateful, polite, and respectful.
Most people with little relied on faith. Those who didn’t know what faith meant would begin seeking for it.
In the world we lived today, it had been difficult to find people who loved being a servant or housekeeper. A lot of past Saints regardless Muslims or Christians-Catholics were people who only served one another. They treated one another as a divinity lived inside the individuals.
Gardener. Sweeper. Cook. You named them. They found wisdom. They found faith. They found God.
A Saint wasn’t raised by university qualification. He or she was given the gift chosen like Caleb, in the Bible…or even Saint Joseph who was a carpenter.
Lessons:
It might be better to take the lower positions than to become a leader or seated in the management. Because when you ruled, not only you needed to be firm. A lot of people began to be cruel or mean. Some even took more than they should —monetarily, wealth, or priority. Some lost their personal values after being promoted as they took the rank into their heads. They became a different person.
Simple tasks didn’t mean cheap. Washing dishes and mopping the floor didn’t come cheap. Behind those routine practices contained wisdom. One needed to find out what it would be.
The Father was uttering some words that didn’t make sense over just a red wine.
The wine becomes the blood of Christ because we believe. The main part of our Catholic faith that stands out among others is that we believe. —Sister Irene
And that made it extraordinary.
I’d been to mass and seen the disciplined routine of worship. On the surface, it didn’t make sense how wine could be turned into blood of Jesus.
People who condemn Christianity might even mock or laugh at the priest. Perhaps he was full of himself, full of imagination, not of sound mind and so on, thinking he could turn wine to blood. It sounded like some Harry Potter magic myths or legend. Nothing true but fiction.
The reality was to tell us the fathers of the church had the power of believing. Not some magical powers. They had the strong conviction conducting the holy communion.
The wine didn’t change as blood. But the wine was an exemplary intended, purposed for partaking in the communion to remember Jesus Christ.
It had been the power of belief that changed our course in life.
- Before we pray, believe it…
- Before we start something, believe it…
- After we pray, we needed to seek for steps to take actions…
- As we put it into actions, believe it too…
Believe.
Lessons:
Apparently, when I looked for something in life, I began to doubt. I remembered how Saint Peter experienced in the sea. And the Lord said, “…O you of little faith…”
Look for something you believed in. Work out from there. Find the belief. Practice it. Put it into action. The end wouldn’t always be the final. However, the journey did the wonders.
We received what we intended for if we paid attention to our intentions…
“…this is the cup of my blood. The blood of new and everlasting covenant. The blood shed for you and all so that you will be forgiven of your sins. Do this in remembrance of me. Amen.”
The start or renewal of faith in whatever your beliefs began when you realized something occurred in goodness you didn’t expect. For example…
One day, a congregation volunteer told me the story of Saint Anthony. The next day I was alone among the pews speaking to Mother Mary. Before I left, I kept looking at Saint Anthony’s statue.
I went up and looked at his name. I stood there quietly touching his feet. In my heart I said, “Saint Anthony, please pray for me…I had lost xxx, yyy….”
I shared with him about the loss I felt in my life. Among the lost, a little bracelet of Saint Benedict. It was blessed by one of the fathers in the cathedral.
I sat outside afterwards, alone. My heart nudged me to open my bag again. The first thing I saw was the bracelet. My eyes went wide. How did I not see it when I had emptied my bag among the pews to re-pack my items before I left?!
Just the same as the holy communion, when a person partake it in remembrance of Jesus with great belief, miracles happened.
Lesson:
We do not know how. Look for ways to believe in whatever we believed in. That when you believed, it shall be. Thus, it would be. Just as long as we did not cause harm to anyone or ourselves. Remember, when a belief made you a monster or caused you changed into someone negative, you got to re-look into what you embraced. Keep in mind that what you seek would seek you in return.
I learned. Meditation helped to quiet our mind. For that I loved being in the monastery, but not all of us were called to be cloistered forever. We were called for a purpose in whatever we did.
I hoped the next time you watch a movie, you would look out for what message it gave for all mankind. Nowadays, the movies were aligned to inspire, encourage, or be of great reminders to us.
May Peace be with you…
Shalom Peace.
💌 N.A. 💌
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