ON FAITH & MEDIA with Sr. Rose Pacatte | Buck

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Buck

By Sr. Rose Pacatte, F.S.P.
Source: AmericanCatholic.org

When Nicholas Evans went looking for someone on which to model the horse trainer and healer Tom Booker for his 1995 best selling novel “The Horse Whisperer” he found Buck Brannaman. Then Robert Redford hired Buck as an equine technical advisor for the film version, and according to this new documentary, Buck was his double in certain scenes.

This documentary is one of the finest I have ever seen because it tells a compelling and inspiring story that leaves the audience with the sense that they have seen a truly great film – and met a genuine human being.

Buck and his brother were trick rope wranglers from an early age. Their mother, a wonderful woman by all accounts, was a waitress. She died very young but even before she died, the boys were terrified of their father. After her death, he beat them regularly. A school coach saw the marks on Buck’s back and reported it. The boys were placed in a loving foster home; the couple raised thirty foster children – all boys - in their lives.

The film follows Buck through a series of four-day horse clinics that he teaches for nine months of the year. We meet his spirited foster-mother, Mrs. Shirley, and understand the nurturing influence she and her husband had on Buck and his brother, Smoky (though we don’t learn much about him in the film, Smokey spent twenty-five years in the Coast Guard, married and has a family with grown children. Buck said in an interview that Smokey “has had a good life.”) We even meet the sheriff who rescued the boys, one of Buck’s best friends growing up, his wife, and the daughter who has become an excellent horsewoman and trainer herself. This is a film about hope, resilience, self-knowledge and awareness, self-control and respect. If a person develops these character traits, he or she will be successful with horses, other pets, and most of all, people.

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Bernardine of Siena: Most of the saints suffer great personal opposition, even persecution. Bernardine, by contrast, seems more like a human dynamo who simply took on the needs of the world.
<p>He was the greatest preacher of his time, journeying across Italy, calming strife-torn cities, attacking the paganism he found rampant, attracting crowds of 30,000, following St. Francis of Assisi’s admonition to preach about “vice and virtue, punishment and glory.” </p><p>Compared with St. Paul by the pope, Bernardine had a keen intuition of the needs of the time, along with solid holiness and boundless energy and joy. He accomplished all this despite having a very weak and hoarse voice, miraculously improved later because of his devotion to Mary. </p><p>When he was 20, the plague was at its height in his hometown, Siena. Sometimes as many as 20 people died in one day at the hospital. Bernardine offered to run the hospital and, with the help of other young men, nursed patients there for four months. He escaped the plague but was so exhausted that a fever confined him for several months. He spent another year caring for a beloved aunt (her parents had died when he was a child) and at her death began to fast and pray to know God’s will for him. </p><p>At 22, he entered the Franciscan Order and was ordained two years later. For almost a dozen years he lived in solitude and prayer, but his gifts ultimately caused him to be sent to preach. He always traveled on foot, sometimes speaking for hours in one place, then doing the same in another town. </p><p>Especially known for his devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus, Bernardine devised a symbol—IHS, the first three letters of the name of Jesus in Greek, in Gothic letters on a blazing sun. This was to displace the superstitious symbols of the day, as well as the insignia of factions (for example, Guelphs and Ghibellines). The devotion spread, and the symbol began to appear in churches, homes and public buildings. Opposition arose from those who thought it a dangerous innovation. Three attempts were made to have the pope take action against him, but Bernardine’s holiness, orthodoxy and intelligence were evidence of his faithfulness. </p><p>General of a branch of the Franciscan Order, the Friars of the Strict Observance, he strongly emphasized scholarship and further study of theology and canon law. When he started there were 300 friars in the community; when he died there were 4,000. He returned to preaching the last two years of his life, dying while traveling.</p>

Unfaithfulness to God causes us to be vulnerable to the influence of the darkness. Only through the sacraments are we able to return to his heavenly light and goodness.

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