Renata Steffens
“She’s a donkey that carries gold and that gold is from God,” said filmmaker Juan Pablo Fajer Navarro describing Blessed Maria Concepción Cabrera Arias de Armida (also known as Conchita) “using her own words.” Mr Navarro produced an acted documentary telling the story of this laywoman who changed the Catholic Church in Mexico.
Conchita was born on December 8, 1862, and since her childhood she “was attracted to God, especially in the Eucharist, and distinguished herself for her purity, humility, and spirit of sacrifice,” the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit’s website reads. Conchita co-founded that organisation in 1914 with French priest Felix Rougier.
Carla Gamboa, an English teacher in the Catholic school Irish International School of Monterrey, in Mexico, is a devote to Blessed Maria Concepción Cabrera Arias de Armida. Ms Gamboa and her mother are involved in a number of religious groups in Mexico.
The teacher explained everything she knows about Conchita was taught by her mother. “She speaks about her [Conchita] very often. She met her in a course from Church where she had to study the life of a saint and she was assigned Conchita. She was amazed by how a married woman could live in holiness and she started recognising her praying methods”.
“For my mom, Maria Conchita has been like that godmother you can talk to in confidence and take as an example,” Ms Gamboa said. “For me she has been like that great aunt your mom talks about and that somehow you like but you are too shy to ask a favour.”
“Concepción, Conchita, is a woman from the 1890s, Mexican woman. She was mother of nine children, she was a wife, a woman really, really close to God in a way that it’s hard to understand, because she was giving all herself to God,” Mr Navarro explained.
The script for this movie was written with three timelines. The first was taken from Conchita’s diary. “Her actual diary, so her own words are what we are listening to in the movie,” Mr Navarro said. Conchita’s writings consist of 60,000 pages in 66 volumes and have been examined and approved by the Church. “And then there’s a representation of her life acted by Janell [Fajer] and other two Conchitas.”
The Apostolate of the Cross is the second timeline, “in which all across the movie we start to see glimpses of this cross… this enormous piece of art that was shown by a vision to Concepción.” This cross is shown throughout the movie “until the climax, when God manifest to her in a way that is bigger than anybody else, in the moment He shows the cross to Concepción,” the producer explained.
“And the third timeline is the spiritual sense of Concepción now. The people like us who live this spirituality of Concepción.” Lay faithful, clergy, religious nuns, people who are already living the Blessed’s spirituality share their view and stories throughout the film.
This is a family project; Mr Navarro produced and co-wrote the script with his mother, Martha G. Navarro, while the lead actress is his sister Janell Fajer. “Our mother started the project of Concepción,” they explained.
“I started a relationship with her [Conchita] before recording the movie,” Ms Fajer told The Irish Catholic. She said that in both sides of their family they have priests who are part of the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit.
Ms Fajer was in silence with the nuns, praying all day long, attending Mass every day”
The siblings explained that when they were young, their parents were part of a lay group of “married people who want to serve God. They went once a week to listen about the spirituality of the cross, and they introduced Conchita to us.”
Preparing to play another woman in a movie could be easy, Ms Fajer said, “but the spirituality of a Conchita is so deep that for me to transmit it, it was necessary to have times of silence, and retreats. I went to a monks’ monastery in Campeche. That was my first step.”
She was in the monastery for two weeks reading about Conchita, starting with A mother’s Spiritual diary, “it’s like her autobiography.” Ms Fajer was in silence with the nuns, praying all day long, attending Mass every day, “this is where everything started. And after, I went to that same monastery for a silent retreat.”
Sentimental
For Mr Navarro, it is “a blessing for our family that we’ve always been close to the Church. But we have our own path growing up in God. We took some other paths, sometimes that wasn’t the best for us all, but the prayer of our family and the union that we have somehow stick us with the Lord.”
“I think it was grace,” the actress said. “All our family on my mom’s side… serve God in some way.” Growing up in a religious family, “made it easier” to be part of a project like Concepción. “Because we understand easier the [importance of the] cross,” explained Ms Fajer.
This was Ms Fajer’s first long movie, but when she was in secondary school, she and her brother were invited to play siblings in a short film for Maria Vision, a religious television network.
It is an expensive movie. Because of that, we tried a simpler way. We recorded this in two weeks, it was impressive”
Mr Navarro studied to be a film director, but before it became a profession, filmmaking was already part of their lives. “When we were younger, we played making movies… it was our entertainment. I was always like, ‘Pablo, can I be someone in your movie?’ And we recorded with an old camera.”
“We have five whole scripts for this project,” Mr Navarro explained. He said that “the first idea was to make a feature film about her life,” but the “economic part” was a problem. As “it is an expensive movie. Because of that, we tried a simpler way. We recorded this in two weeks, it was impressive. It was God’s work.”
Cost
Big part of the project’s cost was covered by the siblings, and their mother also collaborated financially for the making of the film. “We had some people who donated money, and they fundraised and invested on the film. Not thinking about getting money back… or looking for a return of investment… but because they know it’s a work of God.”
He prayed with such faith that Conchita appeared in front of him, and he recovered shortly after this encounter”
For Mr Navarro, the movie’s “purpose is to heal souls and get them to the kingdom of heaven.” He explained that they weren’t too worried about the money. Their mother always says “if you are going to serve God, serve with the best. Not a movie recorded with a phone… do the best because He gave us the best.”
They said that raising the funds was the hardest part in making the film. “No one wanted to give the money,” but they kept going, “knocking on doors… trusting in God,” trusting He would provide and never giving up.
Ms Gamboa has seen her mother praying to Conchita and asking for favours for many years, “and I’ve seen her committed and her heart seems to find peace after many years of question.” Ms Gamboa told this paper about Conchita’s first documented miracle, which led to her beatification. In 2008, Jorge Guillermo Treviño Gutierrez was in the hospital waiting for an operation, after suffering with various health problems and illnesses throughout his life. “He prayed with such faith that Conchita appeared in front of him, and he recovered shortly after this encounter.”
Solace
In 2018, Pope Francis approved the miracle, and Conchita was beatified in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City in 2019.
“My mom wanted to go to her house, but you can’t go if you are not part of a group,” explained Ms Gamboa. One day, her mother was “in confession line and a woman was talking about Conchita. My mom asked about the retreat she was mentioning, and the lady invited her.” The mother accepted “without knowing who she was… [She] turned out to be one of the leaders of that group. This confirms that if you talk to Conchita she listens and helps.”
When we have insecurities, we have doubts, we have impatience… we want to have things now”
“Whatever you contemplate the most, it’s what you convert yourself into,” said Ms Fajer quoting Conchita. “I was in Mass, [recently and] I was unable to stop watching the crucifix. I was watching it and couldn’t stop. It reminds me when Conchita says it and it’s true. When we contemplate our creator and we continue watching who created us with love, it’s impossible to get lost in our identity and it’s the only way.”
“When we have insecurities, we have doubts, we have impatience… we want to have things now.” When dealing with doubts or insecurities, Ms Fajer repeats to herself “I’m loved. I’m a daughter loved by God… It’s what Conchita says, ‘don’t stop contemplating the cross and Jesus.’”
Importance
The Blessed is important to Mexican people “because she is an example of defending one’s faith, holiness regardless of your vocation and to continue with God’s plan from our own community, not necessarily being part of a ministry. We can educate ourselves to repair the Sacred Heart of Jesus as women, mothers, etc.”
Ms Gamboa said her mother watched Concepción, and enjoyed it, but “she thought it was short,” because Conchita “lived so many things and the movie portrays only a small bit of what she went through.”
“I recommend watching the film many times,” Mr Navarro said. “Every time you watch it, you’re going to have something new in your heart, that is going to help you grow in the faith of God.”
Concepción, The Movie is available in Ireland on Prime Video.
When we contemplate our creator and we continue watching who created us with love, it’s impossible to get lost in our identity”