We do love the movies here at the convent in Hell. Hope down at the library sends us wonderful video cassettes each month, and recently we watched “A Star Is Born,” a 1937 movie set in Hollywood (the students tell me there’s a new “Star Is Born” in the cinema right now, so we’ll expect to see that in a couple of years when it comes out on the video). As some of you know, I spent my early years as a sister at St. Mary’s of Mt. Hollywood, before I was chosen to serve in Hell.
The Mother Superior at the time was Sister Adela Rogers St. Johns. She was a feisty mother, yes indeed.
She was a wonderful writer who wrote a story on which the original “A Star Is Born” movie was based. At one time, Sister Adela was known in the local papers as “the Mother Confessor of Hollywood.”
I always tell Sister Failem, the principal from Hell, that we can learn so much about other people and their experiences from the movies.
Anyway, Sister Adela had been a screenwriter and a sportswriter. Her colleagues were mostly crusty men, including Ring Lardner and Damon Runyon. Yet, they accepted her because she had a wonderful way with words, as well as exceptional taste in cigars, which she often shared.
At the height of Sister Adela’s popularity, she felt called to write a spiritual novel, called “Tell No Man.”
Since reading that book I’ve never looked at St. Paul quite the same way. He was a man who judged others harshly in his early life. Then, on the road to Damascus (unrelated to the Hope-Crosby movies, as some students have inquired) he became, as one student said, a “rock star” of the New Testament.
That should give us all hope that even if we’ve done troublesome things or haven’t lived up to our spiritual potential, we have the ability to “rewind” and “be kind.”
So whether you are forgiven, or find the strength to forgive, you can experience the great power of forgiveness. And that, boys and girls, is truly a gift.
Remember to keep the faith; and have a blessed day!
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