Rev. Jacquelyn Eckert facilitated this month’s movie discussion group.
To the Wonder is a mystical meditation on the many manifestations of yearning and love. Like the wind that blows across the plains as the main characters engage in a playful chase, the Spirit of God teases us and invites us to follow. “Teach us where to seek you,” says another character in the film, Father Quintana, echoing the call of spiritual people through the ages. The response is equally universal: Everywhere you turn you see the face of God.
There is within all human beings a deep yearning for transcendental meaning and a connection with the Source of Life. As the Nicaraguan poet Ernesto Cardenal put it: “We have always wanted something beyond what we wanted.” This desire is characterized by a restlessness in our souls. We desperately want to break out of the prisons of separateness that our egos construct for us. This film seems to suggest that our yearning draws out the mystic inside of us, reminding us of our need for unity.
To the Wonder delves deeply into the different kinds of thirst or desire or yearning which give our lives texture, substance, and meaning. Within many religious traditions, these qualities have been seen as problematic. In watching and discussing this film, we will have an opportunity to contemplate whether all desire is reflective of True Desire, which seems to be the message of the filmmaker.
You can find this movie on Hulu, YouTube, Amazon Prime, Vudu, and iTunes.
Here’s the playsheet created by Rev. Jacquelyn to help your movie-watching experience to be an inspired experience and a deep contemplation of the themes of this month’s movie, “To the Wonder”: Click here.
