This week, David and I went to the Blue Army Shrine to film the events they had planned to commemorate the first Marian Apparition at Fatima on May 13, 1917. I added photos of our time there here. We were going to be at the shrine for two days, the 13th and 14th, and my plan (can you hear God laughing?) was to shoot the entire shrine during those two days. Granted, the shrine is huge, and my script is about 13 pages long, but I am ambitious, if not wise.
Day one went well—all we did was shoot the day’s events. Although it has been raining a LOT lately, we were all blessed with a spectacular day on Wednesday. The sky was blue, the clouds were fluffy, and there were LOADS of people. Everything went well. Things started around noon, with the Rosary procession. (Check out our photos on the photo page). After that, Michael La Corte, the Shrine Director, said a few words and introduce the speakers—Deacon Bob Ellis, Father Paul Ruge, and me… Then Father Clement Machado celebrated Mass with about 7 other priests, then then there was Benediction, and then the farewell procession. It was a beautiful day.
Since we had been there from 9 am onward, and the events ended around 4 pm, we were pooped, and decided to hold off on filming anything else until Thursday. Anyway, the light was going, and we were hungry. And since David—native New Yorker that he is—is always lamenting the lack of good diners in our area, we had to find a diner, seeing that we were in New Jersey. And boy, did we hit the jackpot!!
If you haven’t been to the Clinton Station Diner in the nearby town of Clinton… GO! Run, don’t walk! 🙂 Oh my gosh. We liked it so much there—the food, the ambiance, the coffee—that we not only had dinner there Wednesday night, but we also had breakfast there Thursday morning, and dinner there before we went home Thursday night!! We had the Greek gyros (amazing), the nano bites (fun, but the bread was a bit hard), and eggs and sausage (YUM). Very good food.
So, Wednesday being over, we had one day to shoot a 12-page script. Thursday morning, we got up around 6 am, and as we drove to the diner, it started to rain. And it didn’t stop. God is good. Why? Well, because at least this way, I wasn’t stressed out about not being able to accomplish the impossible—shooting it all in one day. Instead, we just focused on shooting the chapel, which had a lot of in front of the camera stuff, and then we went home. Since the Shrine is only an hour and a half away from us, we figured we’d just wait for another glorious day to return and shoot the outside. After seeing how amazing it is on a sunny day, we think it will be worth it.
Now, in Season Two (God-willing), when we start going farther afield, will a rainy day put us off of shooting? No. We’ll have to shoot, ugly day or not. But at least Season One can all be pretty. 🙂
If you live nearby, we highly recommend you attend one of the celebrations from now until October. They have one on the thirteenth of every month, in celebration of the apparitions. And on October 13th, they’re having a huge celebration—we’ll be there—praying for peace and life.
This week, we’ll be shooting at Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral in NYC, and then next week, it’s Newark, NJ, for the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart. Please pray for us that we get it done well!