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Susanna
Posts: 1
Joined: Oct 2005
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October 07, 2005 7:05 PM
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Hi Fr. Lebar, Although I have not yet seen the Exorcist of Emily Rose movie I have heard of an extraordinary event that took place as a result of two young adults (non-practicing Catholics) who viewed the film. I know of one of these young people personally and have had many theological discussions with him since he dated my daughter for 2 years and then suddenly broke it off(thanks be to God). It was evident in my conversations with him that he was searching for God and I would try to answer his questions and explain our Catholic faith to him under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. He is a troubled young man so I continued to pray for him even after he left the relationship with my daughter. Well, here's the story....we have 24 hour Adoration of the Eucharist in our parish, started last year in honor of the Eucharistic Year. I am go to Adoration during the 24 hr. schedule but at another hour late at night a close friend of mine was leaving Adoration when he was surprised to see these two young adults sitting on the steps of the church, incidently, this man was also employed at the same business as the young man. The couple explained to my friend that they had just seen the film on Emily Rose and they were very moved by it and felt compelled to come to the church and pray but they couldn't get in since it is locked at night (open only by combination lock for Adoration). My friend had just been praying to the Lord for guidance asking to know what God would desire of him so he felt moved to let the couple into the church to pray. They gladly went in (other adorers were still in the church) and sat and prayed! This young man had filled his life with every horror story known to the movie industry before this film, I know this because he coerced my daughter to watch these horrible films many times. I used to tell him that the devil was real and that the Catholic Church warns us to be awake and aware when it comes to the devils antics and temptations. I honestly feel that this movie actually helped him to see this reality of the evil one's "true" presence in the world, something all the horror movies in the media couldn't realize in him. It's very moving that the first thing he wanted to do was to get close to the real. true presence of Our Lord in the Blessed the Sacrament! I do agree with you that God will and can use this movie to do a "great good" in the hearts and minds of those who do not believe in the devil and the true presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. Please continue to pray for this young man, as I will too will do and I will keep you posted on his journey home to the Catholic Faith!
Blessings in Jesus & Mary on this Holy Feast of Mary's Rosary, Susanna
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Charles
Posts: 1
Joined: Oct 2005
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October 11, 2005 11:58 PM
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I just read this interview and thought it was great! You know, when I was watching the movie, about a month ago now, I wondered how much might be actually considered authentic, and wondered what a real, live priest-exorcist were to say about it. Now I know. Thanks!
I very much agree with Fr Lebar that the movie is very different from movie The Exorcist. From what Fr Lebar says, I gather this movie is more realistic at a very technical level regarding demonic possession.
The thing I liked most about the movie, though, was not the occult and the demonic elements; but rather the Story. And the Story as it relates to three characters: Emily Rose; the Priest; and the Attorney.
Interestingly, it's not really Emily Rose, but the Priest, who is really the pivotal character. He is the lodestone, the common ground for every key action that takes place. Now, the *focal* character is of course Emily. And she has the title role and is the person we in the audience are watching most closely in every scene in which she appears.
But we find out very early on that the Story of Emily Rose would not even be known, were it not for the Priest. The Priest is, throughout the plot, absolutely committed that the Story shall be told, no matter what. The Priest is in many ways Pontifex, the Bridge, between Heaven and Earth, between God and Man, between Hell and Man, too. Yet the Priest in himself is by far the least "important" of the characters. This seems very true to the Role, the Vocation of the Priest.
Back about the Story. What is for me most edifying is that as the Story unfolds, it's not the *singular* elements that really strike me; but the commonplace and ordinary duty to do what is right no matter how extraordinary the circumstances.
After all, here is Emily Rose, a young lady who had a very different life before her: or so she (and her family) thought. Here is a Priest who had a very different life as well. Here is an Attorney with a different life she was pursuing. Before the Possession of Emily Rose engulfed all three, they were leading what might be considered very ordinary lives. If History had unfolded as it had seemed to be unfolding before the Possession ... then all three would have been following Stories that would be quite separate and far more seemingly mundane.
But then the Possession occurred. And everyone's life changed: forever.
How did the three react? To having their lives torn asunder and an unsought responsibility being heaved into their collective laps?
Well, they reacted on the whole the same way that the Blessed Virgin Mary reacted to suddenly finding her life Changed by an outpouring of the Beyond. Fiat: Be it done to me according to thy will, O God.
Now each of the three characters ... Emily, the Priest, and the Attorney ... each really could have reacted differently; and could have, exercising their free will, declined the Cross that each was being presented.
But they didn't. They too said "Fiat." They too accepted the Cross that they were given, not the Cross that they weren't given. And proceeded to do what we are all Called by God to do: Pick up our Cross and Follow Christ.
Mary's presence in helping Emily to accept her Chalice was so moving. For the two other main characters, the Priest and the Attorney, each further from the immediate mystical and demonic experiences of Emily, the Call ... and the Help offered by God to strengthen each of them for their Pilgrimage ... were less obvious but neither were they any less real.
Somewhere it is said of Our Lord Jesus Christ that "he ate what was set before Him." So did Emily, the Priest, and the Attorney. The meal was, perhaps, not the first choice for any of them. But the meal was accepted and eaten all the same. In this sense, the combination of the supernatural and the mundane in this film could be seen as Eucharistic. God is here: but it is not exactly obvious.
I really liked this movie and would recommend it to anyone. God bless all!
Charles Delacroix
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The_Lunic_Tide
Posts: 1
Joined: Mar 2006
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March 08, 2006 10:52 AM
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I read this interview based on the true story of Emily Rose. I just watched the movie for the first time today and even in broad daylight, this movie gave me the creeps. I have a deep faith in God, I believe in the higher power and I am aware that without the Good, there cannot be the evil.I have always been a lover of horror movies, especially ones that are based on true events. But this movie hit me on a level I have never felt.
As the movie progressed, especially in the part of the movie where the cassette tape is being played for the court, I thought of the one thing that everyone who has seen the movie has thought. What REALLY did happen to Emily Rose?
(I am speaking freely when I state this.)
a Father of the Cross is being accused in the murder of Emily Rose? How does that make sense? In the world we live in, everyone is superficial about what they do not understand, and without a rational explanation, all people can do is dig in their medical books, find something that remotely relates to the events that occured and then, problem solved. Case closed.
But the truth is, their failure to hear out or even try to understand the power behind the story, the breaking-the-case evidence that was PLAYED for them, just goes to show that these professionals, in their careers, have failed themselves.
You can watch any medical show on TV, and you are guarenteed to hear at least one story about someone who had a freak accident, like, super I-should-be-dead freak accident, and lived to tell about it.
Then they go on to tell you about what happened, always ending with "I owe my life to the doctors who saved me."
Everyday, we deal with events that we don't expect, or can't explain. The life of Christ is as strong as the world makes it. He is very much alive, and he grows on the praise and the love of his children. But, we cannot see him. Like the wind, all we can do is feel him. We know he is there. So where does the line between faith and salvation meet with the unknown and the unexplained?
Emily Rose.
Doctors testified that the cause of death was malnutrition. A common disorder. The Father testified it was a demonic plague. So who do we believe?
Both are professionals in their fields. Both have studied the aspects of everything they would expect in their line of work. So, then which is more rational?
Most would agree that the doctors testimony was the more rational, because it was based on physical evidence. I put my faith in the father. Only because his testimony was based on spirituality, and the battles we must overcome with ourselves. Aside from the lack of physical evidence, we all know that Emily Rose was posessed. People do not want to believe that it is possible, People who took the time to work up a medical case did not want to think that the answer did not lie in any book, but inside. We can't accept what we can't see. We need an explantion for everything that is remotely ominus, we can't take the time to look around and see that this is real. Millions of people have devoted their lives to the Lord. The live through him, the pray to him. He is their light and salvation. No proof needed. Those people don't need to physically be in the Lords presence. Because inside, they are pure to heart. They know he exisits. They know he always has. So what does that medical testimony say to everyone? That the Lord is merely a story, something people can relate to, and praise. Because we need something above us to look after us and draw us from evil. Yet We feel pain, we pray, we feel better. THAT is the physical evidence that was there all along. The Lord is great and powerful.Look in the eyes of anyone who has believed. And you will see. You will see what no one can explain. The reality and the power behind ones faith.
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theplant
Posts: 1
Joined: Apr 2006
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April 02, 2006 6:24 AM
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In the film my favourite sketch was in the court room when the woman defending the priest shared a smile with the spiritual woman. There are people like her all over the world, she might not have been a Christian but the way she was portrayed she defiantly had much love in her heart. If there is a truth out there, are we developed enough in ourselves to understand it let alone accept it.. the learning we gain through life from birth to school onwards, all the knowledge we think we have, all we think we know what is it without true love for ourselves and others, most of us have heard a smile costs nothing, neither does true love accept for what we think we know, may we all find it for ourselves and others all over the world.
I once asked some one who goes to a catholic church who I consider to have much love and a smile with a kind of light in his eyes that gives a sense of peace, what do you think of the new German pope, how come if he is to be considered a holy man by the masses he looks a bit grey (I don’t mean his hair) and does not look like (thru my eyes) like he has found peace and love and may be not god. I was comparing him to the Buddhist Dalai Lama who appears to me to be a lot more at peace. He just said to me a Holy Man is a Holy man and smiled I smiled back.
All I think I know is we are manipulated in ways that at times and for most beyond our immediate comprehension, HOLLYWOOD have got and achieved what they wanted and maybe so has the CHURCH…. YOU ALL TAKE CARE and May we all find love and peace for ourselves each other all living entities including the world.
Thank you. I really enjoyed the film.
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