Screenshots from our upcoming film about John Henry Newman

Last week Mary's Dowry Productions went out with a parishioner of ours, who was extremely keen and excited, and filmed some inspiring footage recreating Blessed John Henry Newman in prayer, reading, writing and contemplation later in his life for our upcoming film about John Henry Newman.

This week on Monday 22nd July we hope to set off our again and capture similar imagery portraying Blessed Dominic Barberi, the Passionist priest who received John Henry Newman into the Church.

I am busily sewing a Passionist badge onto a cape we used for our film about Saint Gemma Galgani. We are fortunate to have a First Class Relic of Blessed Dominic Barberi for Mary's Dowry Productions DVD apostolate and have been keen to produce a film about his life because he is so closely linked to England, the conversion of England and England as Our Lady's Dowry.

Our film about Dominic Barberi will look at his life and connection to Newman and to England and Our Lady's Dowry. If you were to mention Blessed Dominic Barberi to most people in England they wouldn't have heard of him. But Cardinal Bourne of Westminster said of Dominic Barberi:

"Of all the preachers of the Divine Word who have worked for the salvation of England, there is no one in our opinion to whom we are more indebted than the Servant of God, Dominic of the Mother of God. I should consider myself happy if I had the power and right to dedicate this whole Diocese to his care and protection and be allowed to honour him as our Patron and Protector in England."

These are powerful words from Cardinal Bourne and very interesting. Who was Blessed Dominic and why is he so very important for England and indeed the Church? We are looking forward to making our film about him available in August (hopefully) alongside our film about Blessed John Henry Newman to make people aware of his importance, indeed of both men's great importance for England, as we walk towards the canonization of Newman in October.

Recreating moments from the lives of the Saints is one of the most exciting aspects of Mary's Dowry Productions. Even though we work on the tiniest budgets (our budget for our film about John Henry Newman was £50 and our 'actors' portray our Saints out of the goodness of their hearts) we are always thrilled with the finished result.

There is something very beautiful, that lifts the mind and the soul, watching the image of a Saint walking besides an old church, praying their rosary, sitting reading, writing their famous and important works or letters or prayers or simply sitting contemplating God in peace.

We are very pleased with how our portrayals of Blessed John Henry Newman for our film turned out and look forward to filming for Blessed Dominic Barberi too.

We will be making our films available in individual DVDs and also in a special two volume DVD box set especially to celebrate Blessed John Henry Newman's canonization in October 2019.

Meanwhile we will keep our blog readers up to date with progress and new Catholic film releases, sharing the lives of the Saints and English Martyrs through the new media.

Mary's Dowry Productions is a Catholic film apostolate founded in 2007.

All of our films are produced in our spare time.

We are a tiny staff of volunteers, parishioners, friends and family on the south coast of England who are inspired by the lives of the Saints and English Martyrs.

Several of our films are available to watch on Mary's Dowry YouTube channel!

We make our films available on DVD and all sales go towards funding films, materials and future projects.

Take a look at our website here:

www.marysdowryproductions.org