Aired Wednesday, March 19th





Week 3: Marin Sheen stars as a reluctant pilgrim on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela in a film made by his son, Emilio Estevez.





Questions for reflection and conversation:



1. At the beginning of the pilgrim’s journey to Santiago de Compostela each one is given a stone to carry. It can symbolize the weight of worry, guilt, or sins that we carry in life. Why can’t Sarah finish her prayer? Why don’t Joost and Jack pray it out loud? What do you think is going through their minds and hearts? Why did Tom seem to say the prayer for them as well as for himself?



2. Tom (Martin Sheen) invites Jack to go inside a beautiful church but Jack says where he comes from in Ireland churches are “temples of tears”- probably referring to the clergy abuse scandal there. How does Jack change when he decides to enter the Basilica of St. James? What do you think Jack’s back story is?



3. During the clip from the film we learn why each person set out on the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela (though Sarah’s reason is more complicated than it seems here). Have you ever been on a pilgrimage? If so, what did the experience mean to you then and now?



4. It is in the basilica, when the giant thurible swings back and forth, the burning incense rising in praise to God during the celebration of Mass, the billowing incense encompassing them and symbolizing purification and grace, that the pilgrims might say, with the apostles on the Mount of the Transfiguration, “It is good for us to be here.” How is this Lenten thing you are doing helping you to grow, assuring you that during Mass, “It is good for us to be here”?


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  • John Wren
    Reply

    I get an email fro the Jesuits in Chicago-Detroit each morning. Finally watched The Way last evening. Thank you. My son about the same age as Daniel. His mother left me when he was 14, he wants nothing to do with any sort of career. Watching the movie very emotional for me, a bit of a pilgrimage in and of itself. Thank you.

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