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Fiat Lux - Let there be Light (in English)
This superbly crafted film will help you discover some of St Francis of Assisi's most important messages, conveyed succinctly, with great beauty and yet tailored for our modern lifestlye.
How are St Francis and Mahatma Gandhi's insights similar? What would these two great leaders of peace say if they were alive today?
In this film by veteren director Philip Engelen, you will join the pilrimage of Eurowalk 2000 from Assisi to Rome with the World Peace Flame, amidst the ancient and stunningly beautiful Umbrian countryside.
You will discover how the World Peace Flame and the power of light can help us attain our greatest strengths.
Finally, enjoy the climax as the World Peace Flame is presented by Mansukh Patel and Savitri MacCuish to Pope John Paul II in St Peter's Square, Rome.
VHS approx 60 minutes - Please Note: This video is recorded in PAL. You can purchase NTSC versions for North America from our North American Offices,
Tel: 1-604-263 4432 or 1-719-570-9422.
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Background
articles
Introduction
The superbly crafted film, Fiat Lux, opens with a graphic image of Mansukh Patel walking up a long flight of stairs in Rome, lit by the 'Eternal City’s' golden afternoon light. Over Arvo Part's evocative music, Mansukh quotes his mother, Ecchaben Patel: ‘In the medicine of the future, people won’t use so many drugs. Instead, they will use the medicine of light.’
This subtle yet dramatic opening sets the scene for the twin themes of this remarkable film.
Firstly, we discover the therapeutic value of light as we follow the journey of the World Peace Flame from the Basilica of St Francis in Assisi to its blessing in Rome by HH Pope John II, carried by Mansukh Patel, Lalita Doerstel, Andrew Wells and Savitri MacCuish.
Secondly, the film offers incisive and at times hilarious insights into the life and teachings of St Francis of Assisi – a life-long source of inspiration for Mansukh Patel – often illuminated with insights from the Gandhian background of his parents.
Mahatma Gandhi, Mansukh Patel and Kenya's Rift Valley
Mansukh Patel gained familiarity with Mahatma Gandhi at an early age since his parents, Chhaganbhai and Ecchaben Patel, had worked in Gandhi’s Satyagraha movement in India. Growing up in Kenya’s Great Rift Valley amidst the turbulent aftermath of the Mau Mau revolt, Mansukh was often a witness of his father’s Gandhian approach to extreme situations.
Although poor, Mansukh’s parents always looked for opportunities to offer meals or other favours to local people in need. Once, while walking home from a distant appointment, Mansukh’s father was accosted by Mau Mau guerrillas on a lonely bridge late at night. They stripped him and were about to take his life when one of them called out, ‘Is that you?’ A young African man was speaking up, recognising Mansukh’s father who given him household chores in exchange for meals. After heated discussion, this young man managed to convice the other guerrillas to let Mansukh’s father go free.
Mansukh has often described the scene of his father’s return. His mother’s anxious, lonely vigil, and then the sight of his father pushing open the door and staggering over the threshold. He was nearly naked and exhausted – yet alive because of the kindness he had shown to one young man in need.
When Mansukh Patel joined with fellow university students Rita Goswami, John Jones, Chris Barrington and Annie Jones, these experiences helped the group craft a unique application of Gandhi’s approach in a western context. Focusing primarily on Gandhi’s self-help philosophy, Mansukh, John, Rita, Annie and Chris began offering self-help approaches at a level suited to Britain in the 1980s – training people in Dru Yoga and Dru Meditation techniques to help heal the emotional and health-related ‘poverty’ that is so prevalent in western society today.
And because of their context in western society, much of their work has been illuminated by the attitude of care and concern expressed in the life of one of the greatest spiritual giants of the Western Hemisphere – St Francis of Assisi. Andrew Wells makes this point powerfully in the film, seated below a replica of the cross that ‘spoke’ to St Francis, in the actual room where the ‘little poverello’ was born.
St Francis of Assisi in the film Fiat Lux
According to Andrew, St Francis says something very exciting. ‘Within every one of us, there is a clear awareness of what we should do next to make our lives move in the most effective direction.’ In a short, powerful statement, Andrew emphasises the words of the Saint that echo to us across 800 years: ‘Do it.’ While Nike may have used this phrase as the basis of an advertising success empire, Andrew points out that St Francis actually lived this philosophy – and so can we.
Similarly, Savitri MacCuish builds on St Francis’ innate capacity to notice the joy and radiance of Spirit in every facet of life. Quoting the Christian mystic, Savitri says, ‘They called me heretic, rebel, a thing to flout, and drew a line to turn me out. Ahh, but love and wit were sure to win. I drew a larger one to draw them in!’
Mansukh Patel, Savitri MacCuish, Lalita Doerstel and Andrew Wells explore many of St Francis’ most beloved places during their journey to Rome. In Greccio, scene of the very first Nativity, Mansukh points out that every great faith tradition carries its seekers towards the same destination, like tributaries to a great river.
In Poggio Bestone, St Francis’ breathtakingly beautiful ‘place of atonement’, Lalita Doestel describes how prayer and meditation can so easily take you into that exhilarating state where you are both aware of your own purpose, as well as completely in-tune with it.
By the ancient steps of the Poggio Bestone monastery, which clings tenaciously to the steep slopes of the Rieti Valley’s eastern rim, Andrew Wells reminds us that Francis, like every one of us, was aware of the times in his life when he’d made mistakes, hurt people or otherwise done something to be ashamed of. According to Andrew, St Francis reminds us that there is a simple way out of the guilt that could engulf us because of these memories – and that is the remembrance that we are all children of Spirit, which is incapable of judging. With this awareness, our mistakes become mere stepping stones to strengthen our ability to respond more appropriately the next time.
The film finishes with a view that St Francis must have often meditated upon: looking out across the soft green fields of his beloved Rieti Valley, with a quotation from Mansukh Patel:
‘There isn’t much darkness in the world, really.
...except when we deny the power of light.’
Fiat lux – ‘Let there be light.’
- HH Pope John Paul II on visiting Assisi after the 1997 earthquake.
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Other books by Savitri MacCuish, Mansukh Patel, Andrew Wells or Dru
Films & Documentaries by Lalita Doerstel, Savitri MacCuish, Andrew Wells, Dru or Mansukh Patel
CDs by Lalita Doerstel, Savitri Maccuish, Andrew Wells, Mansukh Patel, or Dru
Dru products by Lalita Doerstel, Savitri Maccuish, Andrew Wells, Mansukh Patel or Dru
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