A longtime Hollywood artist has teamed up with a Catholic YouTube host to create a live-action film on Eucharistic miracles.
Ray Grijalba, host of the YouTube channel The Joy of the Faith, is co-producing the Eucharistic Miracle Movie, along with artist Angelo Libutti, who has worked in the art and animation department of famous films such as The Lion King 3-D, Alvin and the Chipmunks, and Spider-Man 2. Libutti is also directing The Incredible Dream, which is in production, as well as the TV series Knights of the Cross.
The two said that Blessed Carlo Acutis, an Italian teenager who died in 2006 and was the first millennial to be beatified, was their inspiration for the movie.
“I think viewers need to know that Blessed Carlo Acutis’ mom is in this film and she’s a big fan of the movie,” Grijalba told CNA in an interview. Grijalba’s YouTube video on Eucharistic miracles gained half a million views.
Libutti told CNA that the goal of the movie is to evangelize those who have been misled about the reality of the Eucharist.
The co-producers are excited about their live-action movie format, because they believe many people – believers and non-believers – will be willing to sit down to enjoy a quality film.
Libutti said that many Eucharistic documentaries have been produced, but he questions whether the format of those documentaries has the ability to grab people’s attention for long periods of time.
“What I’m trying to do is find the synergy between speakers in the movie and the live-action scenes,” Libutti said. “So, when we start to feel the talking is becoming boring, people have had a little bit too much, that’s when we’re going to put in the live-action so it’s going to interact perfectly.”
The film includes Catholic figures such as Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler; Cardinal Francis Arinze, former prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation of Divine Worship; Fr. Donald Calloway, author of the Consecration to St. Joseph; theologian Dr. Scott Hahn; Catholic Answers host Tim Staples; and Lila Rose, president of Live Action. The film also features interviews with a scientists on the miracles.
So far, more than $300,000 has been raised for the film, but the two co-producers are looking to double that number….
The above comes from an Aug. 9 story by the Catholic News Agency in Angelus News.
We’ll see… but almost all the time these kinds of productions end up being really lame and CCD teachers who have nothing else up their sleeve show them to kids who end up hating the faith even more because they think Catholicism is about cheesy movies and bad music.
The Church loses 90% of kids who get confirmed. Wonder why.
Maybe it’s in part because 90% of parents are cynical about what the Church can proclaim?
The Eucharistic miracle of Lourdes caught on camera is pretty impressive: it shows the host levitating. You can do a search on YouTube for
eucharistic miracle lourdes
No… there is a natural explanation for it. This is the kind of gullibility and superstition that turns kids away from the church because they think Catholicism a bunch of hooey when adults tell them to believe in fake stuff like this.
From comments at the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDp3nPQqL_o
As a Catholic priest, I’m very familiar with this type of large host, and know from experience that they sometimes get warped so that the center of the host bends inward or outward, making a slightly concave shape, rather than a purely flat one (likely due to the outer rim of the host drying out and shrinking more than the center of the host).
At the start of the Mass, both hosts were warped slightly downwards according to the curve of the paten. During the epiclesis where the priest places his hands over the host, at time 0:06 of a longer video of the event – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDp3nPQqL_o – the bottom host flipped its warp to the other direction, so that the two hosts were now curved in opposite directions, popping the top host up, balanced on the bottom one, touching only in the center. The top host even wobbles slightly upon this balance point, as if its weight were supported only in the middle. That’s because its weight is being supported only in the middle, where the two hosts touch.
Since both hosts had about a 1/3 inch warp to them, the top host appears to be around 2/3 inches above the paten at the edge. If you look very carefully at the video (at 0:19, for instance), the bottom edge of the host is visibly curved into a bowl like shape that is touching another host in the center. You can also see that the green color of the vestments is visible below the top host (and above the bottom host), but not in the very center where the two hosts are touching. The video shots later on are taken from farther away making it less obvious, due to the quality of the video.
The superstitious, uncritical thinking by some Catholics is mind-boggling. Levitating host? Jesus and Mary gave us masks and a COVID vaccine because of a rosary marathon? I’d love for there to be signs of God active in the world. Problem is that there aren’t any and the world and church continue to deteriorate. We are in a period of God’s great absence. Where is God and what is he doing are two legitimate questions that a lot of Catholics are asking. The clergy, even if they aren’t corrupt, aren’t any help; they seem incapable of preaching anything meaningful to address the real-time, right-now circumstances in which people are living and incapable of providing spiritual leadership beyond repeating platitudes that neither work nor convince anymore. The Church has a credibility problem, and bogus claims of miracles and divine interventions hurt the cause.
There are none so blind as those who will not see.
2 Chronicles 7:13-14
If I close heaven so that there is no rain, if I command the locust to devour the land, if I send pestilence among my people,
if then my people, upon whom my name has been pronounced, humble themselves and pray, and seek my face and turn from their evil ways, I will hear them from heaven and pardon their sins and heal their land.
Kevin T. Your post is like one of those TikTok videos where people pretend that they can’t see their dog.
Thank you. That natural explanation makes sense. Don’t know why anyone would thumb-down you for providing what is obviously the truth. Some people don’t like their bubbles burst.
On the contrary to some of the “lame” comments, there is the fact of the short film, “The Veil Removed” which captures what we believers say is the “seen and unseen”. There is power in the media productions that proclaim the good news of the Gospel and portray the Truth of Our Lord, Jesus Christ. This is the challenge of the media’ responsibility and privilege to inform and enlighten souls of The Truth. (Remember St. John Paul II perspective to Hollywood on the great influence of their profession to reach the human heart-afterall he was an actor and understood the media.)
Just celebrate that this project is happening and leave your criticisms til you have seen it. Maybe you will like it.
Or maybe/probably it will be like so many of the video offerings on Formed.org, which are lousy. Catholics don’t do movie media well at all.
Some top-notch Catholic clerics and lay leaders are in this film, along with the mother of Blessed Carlo Acutis– so this film has already caught my interest. However, I have never needed any Eucharistic miracles to prove to me, the fact of the miracle, at each Mass, of Transubstantiation. Since a young age, I have had my own personal spiritual experiences, as many others also have had– of the Divine Presence of Our Lord, in the Blessed Sacrament.
Very true, Christifidelis. I believe because of my experiences, and the experiences of others. “Coincidences” that could not have been “coincidences”. Prayer can and does change things if it is the the will of God and for our own good and that of others.
I also like Cardinal Arinze, very practical and down to earth, without fear of saying the truth.
Many decades ago, I attended presentations of the Medjugorje visionaries, and their priest, Fr. Jozo. At the time, I was impressed by the fact of Fr. Jozo’s courage when suffering the persecutions of the Communists, and saw photos of his wounds– which I admired. I saw miracles of pilgrims to Medjugorje, too, and received miraculous trinkets– which failed to completely impress me, however. In the end, the nature of the visions, and the seeming lack of real spirituality and holiness of the visionaries, as they grew older, did not impress me. Plus, all of the main priests who assisted the Medjugorje visionaries, including Fr. Jozo– were shockingly later accused of clergy sex abuse crimes. By contrast, St. Bernadette of Lourdes, though considered lacking in ability to learn at school, and ignorant of Catholic religious training– and not considered very good during her training as a nun– learned true spirituality and holiness, from Our Blessed Mother, and appeared to practice it correctly, with her guidance.
It is hard to know the validity of miracles and apparitions of Christ and Our Lady. But the miracle of Transubstantiation, and the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist at each Mass, is a tremendous Gift– and always certain!
I think saying that all of the main priests who help the visionaries were accused of clergy sex abuse crimes is not strictly correct. Most of the reason they were laicized or excommunicated was for continuing to preach about Medjuorje after being ordered not to or for other disobedience. There was something about sexual misconduct but that is not necessarily sexual abuse of a minor.
silonm– Read carefully. I did not say that these priests of Medjugorje were later accused of committing crimes of sexual abuse of a minor. I said only that– according to news stories– they were later accused of committing crimes of clergy sexual abuse. That’s all.
Clergy sexual abuse is the sexual abuse of minors or vulnerable adults. It is a crime. There are other sexual crimes that can be committed against adults. These are not termed abuse.
Sexual misconduct can be a crime or not a crime. Sexual misconduct includes consensual relations.
One of the visionaries gave a talk at a local parish, and right on time, Our Lady supposedly showed up with a message for him to give us. All very sketchy, it’s no wonder this “apparition” is not Church approved.