LAYTON — Just before Utah is flooded with celebrities for the Sundance Film Festival, children from St. Rose of Lima Parish will screen their own productions, which will focus on the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy.
The Works of Mercy are actions Christians can perform to show God’s compassion and mercy to those in need. They are divided into corporal (kind acts to help others with their material and physical needs) and spiritual works (advise, admonish, console, comfort, forgive and bear wrongs patiently).
For the film festival, the parish’s 14 faith formation classes have been working on three- to five-minute movies that express the works of mercy. Most focus on the corporal works because they are easier to show, the parish’s Director of Faith Formation Kevin Cummings said.
The movies will be presented to the parish community in the parish social hall on Sunday, Jan. 19. The English showing will be at noon; the Spanish showing will be at 2 p.m.
Cummings said the idea for a film festival was born when he and Assistant Director of Faith Formation Karina Mendoza-Reyes were discussing with the parish’s catechists how to make faith formation more of an experience for the children.
“We were talking about getting some props and costumes together and having them available for doing skits. It just evolved into ‘Hey, let’s make some short films; we can shoot them on cell phones and we’ll have a little film festival,’” he said.
They were inspired by the Pastoral Plan’s call for parishes to have comprehensive kindergarten to eighth-grade faith formation programs, he said. “The Pastoral Plan places such an emphasis on it that this was what started the discussion with the catechists of how do we make this more engaging, how do we make it something that comes alive for the kids?”
The children have responded enthusiastically to the challenge; in addition to having fun, the exercise has taught them to ponder the principles they are learning, Cummings said.
“They’ve really enjoyed it; it has really engaged them,” he said. “What’s really exciting about it is they’re now having conversations where they’re asking, ‘If I wanted to demonstrate one of the works of mercy, how would I do it?’ The important thing, though, is that we have a whole Christian formation program full of kids who have for two months now been talking about the works of mercy.”
The parish pastor, Fr. Clarence Sandoval, has been very supportive, Cummings said.
“At heart he is an educator, so he is always very supportive of anything we can do that engages the kids more than just book work,” he said.
The kids seem very excited; they want to show off what they’ve done; they’re very proud of their work,” Cummings said. “They’re really looking forward to it; I think it’s going to be a fun little event.”
At the film festival, every film will receive some sort of an award “so we can just come together and celebrate the creativity of the students,” he said.
There will also be copies of the DVD and treats for sale at the festival.
“After all, it’s not a movie without candy and soda,” Cummings said.
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