Blue Eyed Ennis: This Lone Brightness: Videos on The Life of Matthew Kelty

This Lone Brightness: Videos on The Life of Matthew Kelty

My previous post featured a chant from the Monks of Gethesemani.
So when I came across these three recently uploaded videos on the life of Fr Matthew Kelty who spent most of his life there, it was a delight.

Click here for my previous post on Fr Matthew in 2011.

The text below is by Michael Bever from the Vimeo site.

"This film was shot and edited after the style of the great filmmaker Robert Flaherty. This means, among other things, I allowed my subject to speak at length on camera, several hours a day, over 3 weeks, with sparse direction from me, thus freeing him to be himself on camera. This is a notable aspect of the film.

The "documentary" is a portrait of Thomas Merton's close friend and confessor,, the legendary Father Matthew Kelty, (although in the second part of Bever's film Thomas Kelty seems to contradict/qualify somewhat Bever's description here of his relationship with Merton.)

We became friends in 1996 and maintained a close communion until his his death in February of 2011 at 95.

He and I labored on this film for over 6 years. The abbot during most of the period, Fr. Damien Thompson, of the renowned (Cistercian) Abbey of Gethsemani near Bardstown KY, allowed us full reign. As he said to me early on, "Anything Father Matthew wants is fine with me." The film was shot completely on location, including a long chat by the fireplace in Merton's hermitage.

I also received enormous help and support from the Robert and Frances Flaherty Film Study Center in Claremont, CA. Executive Director Dr. Jack Coogan was a stalwart film guide and mentor throughout the project.

I also mention with great appreciation the credits the music of my amazing friend, Joel Harper, of the Claremont Folk Music Center in Claremont CA. He put down so much gorgeous instrumental music. Joel "got" the film and composed, performed and recorded all this brilliant and inspired music as he watched the raw footage.

Father Matthew and I decided not to compete with other videos being sold for profit. I made about 200 of these and we gave them away to friends and family. Now, we share it with the world.

Father Matthew was a man "in touch with the deeps" as he used to say.
Thus this is a film on many levels. Perhaps mildly interesting as documentary, it also presents to one who takes the time to watch and listen, a powerful presentation of the "dazzling darkness" of Spirit.

Father Matthew's spirit, I suggest, is as much alive as it was when we made the film.
This Lone Brightness attempts a subtle painting of a remarkable human being. A true work of love. Enjoy."

NB There may be a time lag/ slow start of approx 30 -60 secs delay on these videos which ain't my fault ! You just have to be patient !!

This Lone Brightness Part One

This Lone Brightness 1 from Michael Bever on Vimeo.

Part Two

This Lone Brightness 2 from Michael Bever on Vimeo.

Part Three

This Lone Brightness 3 from Michael Bever on Vimeo.

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More from Seamus Heaney

“History says, Don't hope
On this side of the grave,
But then, once in a lifetime,
The longest-for tidal wave of justice can rise up
And hope and history rhyme.
So hope for a great sea change
On the far side of revenge
Believe in miracles....”

“The aim of poetry and the poet is finally to be of service, to ply the effort of the individual into the larger work of the community as a whole.” ―

“I can't think of a case where poems changed the world, but what they do is they change people's understanding of what's going on in the world.”

and five more......

On his inspiration: 'The completely solitary self: that's where poetry comes from, and it gets isolated by crisis”

On which animal he'd prefer to be: "I might enjoy being an albatross, being able to glide for days and daydream for hundreds of miles along the thermals. And then being able to hang like an affliction round some people's necks."

On fame: "The gift of writing is to be self-forgetful, to get a surge of inner life or inner supply or unexpected sense of empowerment, to be afloat, to be out of yourself. The prizes can’t help you at all.”

On becoming a poet: "My quest for precision and definition, while it may lead backward, is conducted in the living speech of a landscape and a language that I was born with. If you like, I began as a poet when my roots were crossed with my reading."

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Celestial spirit that doth roll
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The singing Easter of the soul -
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Favourite Quotes from Pope Francis

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Carlo Caretto's Love Letter to His Church

How much I much criticise you my church and yet how much I love you !

You have made me suffer more than anyone and yet I owe you more than I owe anyone. I should like to see you destroyed and yet I need your presence.

You have given me much scandal and yet you alone have made me understand holiness. Never in the world have I seen anything more obscurantist, more compromised, more false, yet never have I touched anything more pure, more generous or more beautiful.

Countless times I have felt like slamming the door of my soul in your face – and yet, every night, I have prayed that I might die in your arms!

No, I cannot be free of you, for I am one with you, even if not completely you.
Then too – where should I go? To build another church?

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Did the Woman Say ?

Great Quotes

A blank piece of paper is God's way of telling us how hard it is to be God.

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There are things you can’t reach. But
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“And

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A tough life needs a tough language-and that's what poetry is. That's what literature offers- a language powerful enough to say how it is. It isn't a hiding place. It is a finding place.
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- C.S. Lewis

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People are itchy and lost and bored and quick to jump at any fix. Why is there such a vast self-help industry in this country? Why do all these selves need help?

They have been deprived of something by our psychological culture. They have been deprived of the sense that there is something else in life, some purpose that has come with them into the world."

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Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government only when it deserves it.
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During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.
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We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice: - we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.

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Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.
-- George Orwell

Never for the sake of peace and quiet deny your own experience or convictions.
--Dag Hammarskjöld

If you want to build a ship don't herd people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.
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Dag Hammarskjold

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~ Theologian Walter Wink

One day you will ask me which is more important? My life or yours?
I will say mine and you will walk away not knowing that you are my life.

~ Khalil Gibran

Blue Eyed Ennis

This Lone Brightness: Videos on The Life of Matthew Kelty

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