A few months back somebody suggested to me that I take a look at a documentary called 'The Calling.' Being rather busy, I had to wait until this week to get around to it, but I'm really glad I did. Not only is the calling an incredibly engaging documentary, it's also a fantastic resource which I would thoroughly recommend.

The Calling follows The Family of Jesus the Healer, a religious order which, despite being very young and very small, seems to have a fantastic energy around it. The film follows the community as they move from Florida to their founder's home country of Peru, answering a call to work with the poor in an incredibly deprived part of Latin America.

Alongside this journey to Peru, the film focuses on three people in the community: it's founder, Fr. Philip Scott, a young novice called Orlando who is just joining the community, and an older sister named Mother Mary-Elizabeth. 

The differing experiences of the three complement each other beautifully. Fr. Scott clearly feels a lot of joy at the work of his community, but an equal amount of pressure too. 'Mother', as she is called for most of the film, loves the work too, but feels very torn between her calling to religious life and the demands of being a biological mother with children and grandchildren back home in the US.

For me though, the most interesting character was Orlando, the young man discerning his vocation to religious life. As the film begins he is leaving home to discern his vocation with the community, clear with himself that it's a period of discernment and not a done deal. As the movie ends he makes his first vows and takes the habit, becoming Brother Jose Maria.

One of the real strengths of The Calling is that it doesn't pull its punches regarding religious life. Documentaries telling you vocations stories through rose-tinted spectacles are a dime a dozen in the Church, and they probably don't do much good in the long run. This one though, is different. Orlando's struggle with missing his parents - and his parents' parallel struggle - is a key part of his story. The viewer feels his pain quite vividly. 

At one point in the movie, Orlando confides in an older Brother about his struggles. His confrere relates Orlando's experience to that of God. Just as God gave up everything for us, so those who pursue a vocation are asked to give everything too. Something, the Brother noted, that simply cannot happen without pain.

As the movie goes on, the viewer is also drawn more and more into the pain of Mother Mary-Elizabeth. Her story, in particular, reaches an unexpected conclusion as she struggles to chose between two things she loves so dearly - her religious family and her children and grandchildren so far away in the US.

It's this realism and honesty that gives the film its edge. You feel the pain that giving up that everything can bring. Luckily though, you also feel the joy that the community get from their relationships with God and from their service of others. The strong and clear message is that, for those who feel called to this life, it's a pain that's definitely worth going through. Nothing that really matters, after all, comes without pain.

The Calling is a deeply moving piece, fantastic for its honesty, its power and its simple portrayal of what it means to pursue a vocation. And not just a vocation of the religious or ordained variety - it gets you thinking about what it means to be a child of God in whatever walk of life you end up.

This is fairly obviously a fantastic vocations resource, and I'm sure it will be used widely for that purpose. Moreover though, I think it says a lot about Christian life more generally: prayer, community, discernment, family, love, service, poverty, calling, and so much more...

You can order The Calling here. You can follow them on Facebook too.