Though it took almost a year for an idea to present itself and be worked out, a short video, Rich in Mercy: The Bridge Between God and Man, is what finally resulted. Here is how it came about.
It began in November when the fourth grade class at Sacred Heart Academy in Redlands decided to make a video for Bishop Robert Barron, a new Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Around this same time I came across a British video showing a variety of folks praying the Our Father. Having done a great job on the bishop’s video, it wasn’t long before I was thinking the class could do something similar to the British clip I had seen. We were now quite versed in video production and it seemed a great application to observe the Jubilee Year. I presented this idea to the class, and upon getting a thumbs up from them, we started working out our story board and getting a film crew. Our film crew ended up being Matthew Jacobson, a young man from The Holy Name of Jesus parish who happily donated his time and talent to our project.
In Misericordiae Vultus, Pope Francis’ Bull of Indiction announcing the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, he gives four points about mercy. The last one, “Mercy: the bridge that connects God and man, opening our hearts to a hope of being loved forever despite our sinfulness,” became our focus. This fit well with our school’s name, Sacred Heart Academy, and we hoped that by focusing on Jesus’ most Sacred Heart it would be a tangible, visible way of seeing God’s mercy. As Saint Pope John Paul II said in Dives in Misericordia (13), “The Church seems to profess and venerate the mercy of God in an extraordinary way when she turns to the Heart of Jesus.” This is why we begin with a shot of a statue of the Sacred Heart.
What was initially an in-class project quickly spread like God’s divine mercy, reaching out beyond its starting point to include all. Almost immediately it became a school-wide video, which then quickly came to include the parish, and then the entire community of Redlands (represented by filming at El Carmelo Discalced Carmelite Retreat Center and the University of Redlands). And finally, before we knew it, we had Bishop Gerald Barnes on board who, for us, represents the entire Diocese of San Bernardino. God’s mercy was spreading.
Due to a limited production schedule, and with only so many lines to the Our Father, we were not able to directly include some people and places as we originally hoped.
As Catholics we knew the video needed to include our Blessed Mother who, in her maternal love for all, leads us to our Savior. Though we know her as the Mother of Mercy from the Salve Regina we chose to call her Most Holy Theotokos in our prayer to her. This was our way of being able to include our Eastern Rite brothers and sisters who use this title more often than we do in the Roman Church.
“We need constantly to contemplate the mystery of mercy,” Pope Francis also says in Misericordiae Vultus. We hope our Year of Mercy video, in a small way, helps you to do this. Our video is available at the school’s main web page, Sacredheartredlands.com. Click on ‘Rich in Mercy video’ under News and Announcements. May our Lord bless you with His great mercy.
Anne Alhadef is the fourth and fifth grade instructional aide and campus minister at Sacred Heart Academy in Redlands.