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*******SHOW NOTES / QUOTES************
This episode I share about “Diary of A Country Priest“, the first selection of the Lenten Movie Club, which was previously easily available, and may not be currently.

The film is hard to watch, due to the unique way that Bresson filmed–naturalistic takes, non-actors, very little music.

This film is a raw, honest character portrayal of a minister of faith, and the unique trials he goes through.

The goal of Bresson’s naturalistic approach toward filming (very little music, great many takes) is so that just the dialogue would come out naturally.

There are many people in the community who look upon this minister as a threat to their way of living, who mock him.

In one scene, he is offered free services by a neighborly handyman, which he accepted; but he did so, knowing that this person had drinking parties at his home where he invited the teenagers of the community. Because he was offered a free service, he didn’t speak out.

In another scene, he had a long exchange with a woman who was depressed over the death of her son, sharing the Gospel fully and the woman accepted; she then dies the very next day.

There are three things to ask when watching a story like this:

1) How similar is this character to the ministers in your life (regardless of what denomination you attend)? What are the struggles they go through that we take for granted?

2) How similar is this character to you, since we are all called to be Christ’s witnesses? Would you have done the same things that he did?

3) How is this character a Christ-figure? How can we grow closer to Jesus due to the Way of the Cross that we all have to walk in our own lives?

Next week: A Man For All Seasons

The schedule is as follows:
Lent 1: The Diary of a Country Priest (available on Hulu+)
Lent 2: A Man For All Seasons (available on Amazon Prime)
Lent 3: Into Great Silence (available on Netflix)
Lent 4: Ordet (available on Hulu+)
Lent 5: The Passion of Joan of Arc (available on Hulu+)
HolyWeek: The Gospel According to St. Matthew (avail on Hulu)

A songsheet is available for free download.  Right-click here and select “Save As” to move to your desktop.

Episode Log Times
2:28 – Worship Session (Music and Prayer)
3:35 – Cleanse Me
8:38 – Forty Days and Forty Nights/Sing Unto the Lord
12:57 – Hear Our Cry
16:20 – Hear Thou, O Bounteous Maker, Here.
20:55 – Cum Invocaremte.
23:12 – Spoken, Spontaneous Prayer
30:36 – Song of the Week (“Our God” by Chris Tomlin)
38:34 – Reflections (“Lent Movie: Diary of a Country Priest”)
53:42 – Final Comments and Doxology

SONG OF THE WEEK
“Our God” by Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, Jonas Myrin, and Jesse Reeves
From the album “Awakening” (2009)
Copyright (c) 2009 Thankyou Music/sixsteps Music/Said And Done Music/Vamos Publishing/SHOUT! Publishing/worshiptogether.com songs

********************SONGS***********************

CLEANSE ME
Words by J Edwin Orr, Arr. by Nick Alexander

1. Search me O God, and know our hearts today.
Try us, O Savior, know our thoughts we pray;
See if there be some wicked way in us;
Cleanse us from every sin and release us.

2. Lord, take our lives, come make them wholly Thine;
Fill our poor hearts with Thy great love divine;
Take all our wills, our passions, selves and pride;
We now surrender Lord, in Thee we abide.

We praise Thee Lord, You cleanse us from sin.
Fulfill Your Word, make us pure within.
Fill us with fire, where we’ve burned with shame;
Lord, magnify Your Name.

Public Domain;

FORTY DAYS AND FORTY NIGHTS
Words: George H. Smyttan, in The Penny Post, March 1856.
Music: Heinlein, Nürnbergisches Gesangbuch, 1676; melody attributed to Martin Herbst (1654-1681); harmony by William H. Monk (1823-1889)

1. Forty days and forty nights
Thou wast fasting in the wild;
Forty days and forty nights
Tempted, and yet undefiled.

2. Should not we Thy sorrow share
And from worldly joys abstain,
Fasting with unceasing prayer,
Strong with Thee to suffer pain?

3. Then if Satan on us press,
Jesus, Savior, hear our call!
Victor in the wilderness,
Grant we may not faint nor fall!

4. So shall we have peace divine:
Holier gladness ours shall be;
Round us, too, shall angels shine,
Such as ministered to Thee.

5. Keep, O keep us, Savior dear,
Ever constant by Thy side;
That with Thee we may appear
At the eternal Eastertide.

Public Domain

SING UNTO THE LORD
Author Unknown
Sing unto the Lord a new song
Sing unto the Lord all the earth
Sing unto the Lord a new song
Sing unto the Lord all the earth

For God is great and greatly to be praised!
For God is great and greatly to be praised!

Public Domain

HEAR OUR CRY
Author Unknown; New arr. by Nick Alexander

1. Hear our cry, O LORD; attend unto our prayer
From the ends of the earth, our hearts cry out to Thee

And when our hearts are overwhelmed
Lead us to the Rock that is higher than I
That is higher than I.

2. For Thou hast been our shelter eternally
A high tower, LORD, against the enemy.

Copyright unknown

HEAR THOU, O BOUNTEOUS MAKER, HEAR
T. Campion, 1575-1619,
Ascribed to St Gregory the Great 540-604,
Tr. Primer 1706; Arr. by Nick Alexander

1. Hear Thou O Bounteous Maker, hear,
Our humble vows with gracious ear;
Turn not Thy saving face away
Whilst on this solemn fast we pray.

2. Great searcher of our hearts, to Thee
We here deplore our misery;
Behold we to Thy mercies fly
Do Thou Thy healing grace apply.

Great are our sins, O Lord
How great are our sins, O Lord
But You can pardon more than we can do.

3. May fasts extinguish in our will
The fuel and desire of ill.
And thus our souls, from fetters free
May only thirst and follow Thee.

4.Grant, O Most Sacred Trinity
One undivided Unity
That abstinence may here improve,
Our claim to reign with Thee above.

May our defects like shadows,
all these defects like shadows
raise the bauty and the life of grace.

Public Domain; arr copyright 2013 by Nick Alexander

CUM INVOCAREMTE
Roman Gradual

Cum invocáremte, exautdísti me, Déus justítiae méae:
In tribulatióne dilatásti me:
Miserére míhi Dómine, Et exáudi oratiónem méam.

When I call upon Thee, Thou listened to me,
O God of justice, towards my cause.
When I am in trouble, thou didst come to me.
Have mercy upon me, Dearest Lord
And listen to these intercessions of mine.

Public Domain

All songs are in the public domain, unless otherwise noted.
Any songs written or adapted by Nick Alexander are available on music notation, for those who wish to introduce these songs in their own communities.

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Next week: A Man For All Seasons