This week’s Family Feature Friday is Pixar’s Up . It runs 1hr and 36min and is rated PG. It can be rented or purchased HERE. This Pixar movie focuses on Carl, who overcomes grief through an adventure with an unlikely friend and neighborhood scout, Russel.

Up has one of the best and most moving montages throughout all of cinematography. Within four minutes at the very beginning of the film, we see Carl and his wife Ellie stand together in marriage, working to overcome the numerous obstacles and sufferings they face within everyday life. They embrace the trials together, which only helps their love grow stronger.

Reflection Questions:

1. What are some things within the montage of Ellie and Carl that you see within your life? When are some sufferings or trials that brought your family closer? How do you find joy in the everyday life?

2. In Genesis 2:18, The LORD says, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suited to him.” How do Carl and Ellie complement and help each other? How do you see your parents or grandparents serve and help each other?

3. We are called to love our neighbors as God loves us, and we have the corporeal and spiritual works of mercy in helping us do so. Carl and Ellie show love for one another, especially in works of mercy: caring for the sick, comforting the afflicted, and burying the dead. How do you show mercy and care for your family, friends, and neighbors?

4. When Carl is alone, he is grumpy and frustrated, but when Russel comes to help him, he slowly starts to warm up and to see beyond himself. We are saved and come to know God through the body of the Church. Why do you think we need others in our life? Why do you think community is so important?

5. Carl conflated the house that he and Ellie built together with her. At some point he has to choose between saving the house or saving Russel. What helped him to choose to let go of the house and to save Russel?

6. Carl is there for Russel, even when Russel’s dad is not there for him. God is their for us even when our human relationships fall short. How have your seen God with in moments when your needed him the most?

Here are slides on the Incarnation and the Movie Up from a youth night back in January. We talked about how God continues to pitch his tent among us all throughout Salvation History. We see it in the Tent of Meeting with the Israelites in the Old Testament, in the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, and in the Church today. Throughout this Pandemic, OLMC has kept Christ accessible with daily Eucharistic adoration, the Sacrament of Reconciliation and an open Church. That has not been the case for every parish or diocese, but nevertheless, Christ is still with his Church, especially through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.