I've never been much of an auditory learner. When I was a student, even recently, I knew I really needed to see the printed words or pictures to help the subject matter sink in. I mean, I can hear, though I admit it's getting harder every day, but even as a child, I learned better when I could see what the teacher was delivering. It's not right or wrong, it's just the way I'm wired to learn...I'm a visual learner. What I see travels faster and processes faster in my brain than what I hear. At least that's the best way I can explain it. If you'd like to take a simple ten-question quiz to find out your learning preference, click on, Find Out Your Learning Style Preference. I took the quiz even though I knew what the outcome would be, and it stated, you are a very visual learner.

So imagine my delight a few years ago when I purchased my first smart phone and smiley faces were sometimes interspersed in the texts I received. I loved it...right away! The technical term for these emotional faces (just on the off chance that you don't have a smart phone or just don't know the name) is, emoji. Emoji means 'picture letter' in Japanese, and is the type of emoticon used on iphones, ipads, Androids, Windows phones and Macs. And when I learned, probably from my kids, that there was even an emoji keyboard to add to my smart phone that would enable me to speak with pictures, including all sorts of emotions, figures, plants and animals, I confess, I became the queen of smiley faces. It's probably a fair assessment to say that I use them with almost every text I send.

A few months back, though, I sadly figured out that one of my friends whom I texted frequently, and, who had a smart phone, didn't have the type of smart phone that could read emoji. What! Do you mean to say that for the past two years, I'd been sending her all kinds of emotional faces to help tell my story, and she wasn't getting them? She very kindly told me that everything was okay...she could feel my emotion through my words. Phew! But, all is okay now, as she just got a new phone and sends me my very own smiley faces now.

So I'm a visual learner. I think that's where I was going with this before. I love my eyes, and I treasure what I can see...every little thing. And I can feel so much from what I see. I'm definitely a people watcher; not in a strange way, but in a curious way. I like to watch peoples' actions, and then watch their faces to see their expressions. Except, sometimes I don't like the expressions that come my way.

Just yesterday while I was in the grocery store, there was a mother really snapping at her little boy. She was leaning forward toward him, and her words were too loud for public, and enunciated clearly enough for everyone around her to hear. Get over here and don't touch anything! She was just about spitting at him! I didn't know her or know anything about their situation, so I'm not judging, well maybe I am, but it was the little boy's expression that my eyes saw and wished I hadn't. It was shame. I could feel his shame and embarrassment, and I know he caught me looking.

There are other times, though, that my eyes catch something so powerful, and so good that I'm sure I'm downright rude with the amount of starring I do. Just the other night I attended the Holy Thursday Mass. There was a mix of people there, and I didn't know many of them because the parishioners from all masses came together at this one. There just so happened to be a giant sitting in the row in front of me. Really, a giant. I'm tall so I know giant when I see one. This man had to be seven feet tall with a huge frame to go along with his height. Being a giant alone wasn't the interesting part, but watching him interact with the littlest person in his family was. There were a number of people in his family, and he was on the very left of them on the aisle. Several times I noticed him motioning past the whole line of them to very end...to the toddler. He was demonstrating how to make the sign of the cross. I didn't want it to be apparent that I was more interested in this man than in the mass, so I almost got eye strain moving my eyes back and forth from the very left to the very right. I wanted to watch the toddler try to do what her father was teaching. But his actions didn't stop there, and I couldn't stop my eyes from taking it all in. After receiving Communion, he didn't kneel like all others. Perhaps he didn't fit on the kneeler, but he remained standing with his hands over his eyes, clearly moved, clearly aware that he was in the presence of the Lord, and all I could do was stare.

Did I learn from him? Did my silver learn? I certainly did. I could feel his pain in remembering what Jesus did for us on the following day, Good Friday. I could feel his respect as he moved to the aisle and fell to his knees when the Communion line passed, and I was able to witness him fathering, yet again, after we moved from the church to the hall where the Holy Eucharist was moved. Because he sat in front of me, I was able to follow him to the hall. He carried his toddler all the way to the hall, and then placed her ever so gently right next to him, coaxing her to her knees to do like him. He demonstrated the sign of the cross again to his little girl, and I stood, mesmerized, by his fatherly actions. I learned from this giant of a man, definitely.

Was this my visual learning style in action? I think so. All of this man's acknowledgement of what Jesus did for him was evident in his actions. I've been taught the story of Jesus' death and what He has done for you and for me 51 times, and it's made me who I am today, but this year I learned it from a giant...from a man whose tender heart was carried on the outside for me to see, and I'm so thankful my eyes had the opportunity.

My wish for you this Blessed Easter? To also have the opportunity to witness and learn from others loving Jesus. May the impact of others' loving actions help you to realize your own loving way toward those in your life. Happy Easter.

**Non-spoiler alert-I'm going to talk about the movie, Son of God. I can't possibly spoil it for you...the story remains the same. Tonight I watched the movie, Son of God. I don't know what to say; I'm still shaking and still so very moved. It is by far a movie that has affected me more than any other. I've seen lots of movies about Jesus, and I've loved them all; The Passion of Christ, The Ten Commandments, I've even seen and loved Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell. But this one...this one topped them all. Maybe for me, it was the casting...all of the actors. True, the actor, Diogo Morgado, who played, Jesus, was super handsome, and has earned himself the hash tag title, #HotJesus, but that's not what I'm referring to. It was something so much more than that. He played the role to perfection...for me. He moved and looked at people just the way I have always imagined Jesus to do so. Every story and every reading that I've heard in all of my years about Jesus, from the weekly readings at mass to the messages I help pass on to the teens at Edge, to what I taught to the kindergarteners in CCD, came pouring out of this man's mouth the way I imagine Jesus to be...not old school harsh or boring...but with the most passionate expressions. I've seen it and heard it countless times...it's just that this particular movie had the biggest effect on me.

Was it my mood...or my hormones...or the fact that I was sitting in-between my mother and daughter (which was very special), but everything about the movie got to me. In one of the earliest scenes, Jesus came across Matthew, the tax collector, who was collecting money from the poorest of people. The crowds following Jesus were quick to scorn Matthew...but you should have seen the look in Matthew's eyes when he saw Jesus. I can't even describe it, but I think it was, shame. Yea, shame. He was so incredibly sorry that Jesus saw him robbing the poor. Matthew's eyes filled up with pools of tears...but it was as if I were looking into my own eyes when I've done something wrong. And all Jesus did, was to return the look with love in his own eyes as he outstretched his hand toward Matthew's. Oh, my God! Was it there that I began crying? Or was I already crying? I can't remember. But, they weren't Matthew's tears, they were mine...and Jesus wasn't looking at Matthew, He was looking at ME! That's how powerful the acting was.

The movie went on to show all of the well-known stories I've heard about; Jesus healing the lame, feeding the crowds with just a few fish, raising Lazarus from the dead, and giving permission to the crowds of men to stone the adulteress if they were without sin. They held fist sized stones aimed at the woman, who was bound. The stones were dry, covered in a thick dust, and held by the hands of many covered in sin. The filth that rose from the falling stones signified their understanding of what this one man was saying, and was so visually impacting to experience. I was moved in all of the past movies I watched about Jesus, but the key word being, watched. In, Son of God, I felt like I was part of the crowd, walking with Jesus. It was filming at its best. It portrayed the disciples' wonderment and growing love for Jesus, their fear of safety, and it of course, exposed Judas betraying Him and Peter denying Him. There was so much to pack into two hours...but I would have sat for much longer. The emotion was running on high throughout the entire movie that I never had time to properly recover from one scene before moving to the next. I'm going to quote myself from a different emotional movie with, "It was so good, I cried myself all the way through!"

As a viewer, I was walked through the trial with Jesus and saw how fear from both the high priest and Pontius Pilate led to His death. I felt the forty lashes He received as punishment, and felt the crown of thorns being pushed into His scalp. And then came His final walk, carrying His cross to Golgotha, the place of the skull. The cross was huge...I never knew how big it was. When Jesus fell, it was filmed in slow motion and the theater walls shook. The camera was on the ground and received the full impact of His fall...each time. When Jesus could no longer get up, and Simon of Cyrene was grabbed from the crowd to help, I wanted to jump from my seat to help. But instead, I sat...I sat and cried with shame.

At that point, I could hear Jesus telling me that it was okay. He was doing this for me because He loves me. He said that I, too, have a cross to carry. We all do. The cross of our sins is heavy, the cross of our hardships is heavy, and the cross of our walk in this life is heavy. But what I've learned in the past, and heard again tonight, is that He is helping me. Jesus is my Simon of Cyrene, and it's His love that helps me.

Jesus' resurrection was as beautiful as I've ever imagined it to be. Once again, I felt as if I were sitting with the disciples when He arrived. I was Thomas when he felt the holes in Jesus' hands, and I listened to Him explain about everlasting life. I was with all of them on the mountain after forty days when He ascended to Heaven.

Phew. What an experience! When the movie ended and the credits began rolling, no one moved. I won't spoil what song was playing, but I will tell you that the tears from the audience just kept coming. Somehow I managed to drive my mother home, but in complete silence. My daughter and I shared just a few words after that. What could I say? Just a few grunts. I must have been a sight when I came home from the movie because poor Officer Buckle paced about the kitchen while I continued to ponder the evening with swollen eyes nearly shut. "The movie was good?" he asked. "Good, good, can you iron a shirt for me?" That, of course, was his way of saying, "I'm sorry that you're so upset. Let's get you back on auto-pilot."

When I started typing this blog, I made the mistake of reading an online review. Big mistake...but not for me. The poor man thought the story of Jesus' walk of life was lame and told too many times...or not well enough. Wrong! This is my fifty-second time entering into the season of Lent, and what has my silver taught me? The story of Jesus' life and what He has done for ME and YOU gets better and better every year, makes more sense. And now, I'm able to experience it as if I'm walking with Jesus by the use of digital technology. Lame and too many times? Never! I rate movies not but what I see, but by what I feel. I think it's safe to say that I don't watch movies, I feel them. If a movie brings out my emotion and leaves me stuck...stuck and unable to stop thinking about it, then it's a job well done...no matter what other critics may say.

I encourage each of you to see, Son of God. What perfect planning it was that went in to the timing of the release...the beginning of Lent. The story of God's love, hope, and everlasting life will never grow old.

I saw the Son of God.

The Silver Side of Life