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St. Gianna Molla

October Baby

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October Baby is a sweet and at the same time unbelievably powerful movie about a young woman who always feel there is something missing, or different about her, until she discovers a shocking truth.  There’s a lot about family, about growing up, about forgiveness.  Heavy topics, and yet the movie itself is quite funny.

I got the opportunity to attend a screening several weeks back of October Baby.  Normally, my husband and I try to make these screenings a “date night” (and we usually run into other couples we know).  That particular night, my husband had a speaking engagement, so I invited a fellow blogging friend along and we had a nice evening out.

Sister Helena Burns (not the blogging friend I attended with, incidentally) wrote a comprehensive review on her blog earlier this week.  Please head on over there to get a feel for the plot of the movie.
There’s nothing for me to add to her excellent review–she’s much more detailed about “movie-ish” things.  I didn’t really notice the background music issue she raises; in fact, I thought the cinematography was especially good.  Here are some of my favorites from the movie:
*the father-daughter relationship felt really real, especially a dad being a little overprotective, then learning how to let go.
*the loving, beautiful and kind portrayal of those in the abortion industry.  This loving and kind portrayal is even more so for women who choose abortion.  There’s no condemnation, just love.  Wonderful–may we all be this way, all the time.
*Truman, the “funny” friend of the two main characters, and really all the friends.  He’s hilarious, and wild horses couldn’t drag me back to being a college student, but I would do so just to get to go on a road trip with the cast of characters that do in October Baby.
*a non-Catholic character experiences an epiphany, and a kind of healing, in a Catholic church.  Much has been made (and I have found absolutely true, and wonderful) that ecumenism is a great quality of the pro-life movement.  This movie shows how exists naturally and is not forced or awkward, but heartfelt.
*Like Sister Helena, I cried at the end.  How could you not?
October Baby is about an abortion survivor–and by that I don’t mean a woman who “survives” abortion.  Sometimes, rarely, a baby survives an abortion (so the bumper sticker “abortion: one dead, one wounded” becomes “two wounded.”)   And those babies grow up into remarkable adults.
Many years ago, I spent several days with Gianna Jessen, one of the abortion survivors on which the movie is based, the first time she testified before Congress.  It must have been in the late 1980s or early 1990s, and she was a young teenager–14 or 15.  I had the great good fortune to drive Gianna and her (adoptive) mom around throughout the several days she was in DC.  Driving people around seems to be a theme in my life, but it is a great way to get to know people!
I hope if our weekend schedule permits that I will take my 14-year-old daughter, and perhaps a friend or two, to see the movie this weekend.  I’ve been talking to her about it, and she is very eager to see it.  I think the PG-13 rating is appropriate, but probably a lot of younger kids could see it, considering all the intense media many kids consume.
I love that October Baby filmmakers will set aside 10 percent of the profits from the film for women in crisis pregnancies:

The Best Thing About the Behold Conference … Part 1

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to me, was the adoration chapel, set up by several beautiful volunteers at the Behold Conference.   The chapel was a peaceful oasis in the bustle of a truly wonderful day.  Time spent there was precious to me, and to many women who were at Behold. 
But there were so many other great things from the Behold weekend.  The other night, I gathered with other volunteer Behold directors to go over the evaluation forms.  We found that many women listed “more time” for all the things there were to do at Behold–adoration, confession, talks, great food, vendors, meeting people.
Allow me share some other favorites from the Behold weekend:
My role this year with Behold (in previous years I was just a driver), was to organize the “Meet the Bloggers” part of the conference.  “Team Blogger” as the five volunteers in this area called ourselves, put together a great slate of bloggers and guests to attend a “Blogger Summit” the Friday night before the conference to discuss Catholic women and new media.  It was a great discussion with lots of input from so many voices.  Here are a few photos from the blogger summit and a Behold volunteer/special guest reception afterwards (my phone, unfortunately, only sporadically taking decent photos).  I’m going to have to save the photos of the Behold day for another post:
The Sisters of Life (and teenager Molly, their driver, who was a great young voice at the summit).
Behold Executive Director Rose Rudolph addressing the summit.
Blogger Sister Helena Burns getting a big laugh as she filmed the room during the blogger summit.  The very funny video of that can be found here.
Bloggers Sarah Reinhard, Cat Hodge, and Elizabeth Duffy

Blogger Mary Hasson with yours truly.
Two lovely blogger ladies–Hallie Lord and Bonnie Engstrom meeting in person for the first time!
Singer Marie Miller with a group of her younger superfans (as opposed to me, more mature superfan!)
Blogger Emily Stimpson meeting fellow blogger (and “Team Blogger” member) Marcia.
Blogger Jen Fulwiler and local blogger Jamie getting to meet again.
Team Blogger member Linda with blogger Sister Helena Burns
Blogger Arwen Mosher brought her sweet 10-month-old twin boys (and had help all weekend from a great friend, here in green).
More photos to come!

Catholic App Spotlight Update: Confession

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 I first wrote about the Confession App earlier this year, at that time getting a lot of press.  I did download it and check it out, but wondered at the time if I would find myself using the App during actual confession.
Let me “confess” that I’ve become very fond of the Confession App, developed by Little iApps.  So much so, that last month when the App told me it had been two months since my last confession, I felt compelled to share with our parish priest, “While my iPhone says it’s been two months since my last confession, I know I’ve been here twice without my phone.”  He laughed.  And then when I got home I tweeted about doing that.  Am I geeky enough to have a Confession App?  Oh, yes I am.
Many months ago, the very first time I used it in confession, I showed my phone to the priest at a Franciscan parish in Peoria.  Somehow it seemed wrong that he not be aware that I was reading from the examination of conscience the App prompts.  He laughed and said he had heard about it, but it was the first time he heard an App-aided confession to his knowledge. 
Joking aside, I find the Confession App very spiritually helpful in a few key ways:
*the examination of conscience  is keyed to your state in life.  When I first set up my password-protected account, it asked if I were married, etc.  And the examination of conscience relates to that.
*a neat feature that follows the sacramental nature of Confession and what it does for your soul: after you go to confession, your sins, like in actual Confession, are literally wiped away—there’s no way to go back and look through what you confessed previously.  Each time you prepare for confession, the Examination of Conscience is fresh and unchecked.
*the prayer after finishing Confession changes each time you go, and they are lovely.  I wish there were a way to capture them for future reading—I remember particularly good ones from St. Gregory the Great and one from St. Josemaria Escriva, but I can’t find a way to go back and read them again.
I had thought I might use the Confession App for a nightly examination of conscience, but instead, I use my all-time favorite App, Universalis, for saying night prayer.  
Little iApps, the developer of Confession, have a great line-up of Apps.  I’ve downloaded all of them, and especially love the eVotions Apps on different saints.  Our family especially likes the photos on the St. Gianna Molla App.
In recent days, my 8-year-old son and I have taken to saying the novena to Blessed John Paul II in his “App,” as his before-bed prayers, and there’s nothing sweeter than hearing his little voice read through the prayer at the end of the novena. 
Have you used the Confession App?  Or do you have any Catholic Apps you’d like to share?