The big movie this past year has been Disney?s Frozen. The movie is about Elsa who was born with the gift of ice magic. She is able to make ice and snow at will. Her younger sister Anna absolutely adores her and they would often play together in the middle of the night when everyone was a sleep. One night while they were playing Elsa accidently hurts Anna with her magic. The king, queen and Elsa take Anna to the troll king who is able to save the girls life by removing Anna?s memories of Elsa?s magic. Elsa is warned by the troll king that she must overcome her fear and learn to control her magic otherwise more people will get hurt.

Elsa spends most of her time in her room deeply afraid of hurting others and Anna, who now has no memory of her sister?s magic, cannot understand why her sister does not want to hang out with her. Sadly the death of their parents, who die when their boat sinks during a storm at sea, does not even unite the girls together.

Elsa is crowned queen on her twenty-first birthday and there is a large party. Elsa tries hard to keep her powers under-control and hidden from everyone but an argument with Anna causes her to lose control and almost hurt a large group of people. Elsa flees into the mountains to escape and Anna goes after her.

While searching for Elsa, Anna convinces the mountain man Kristoff and his reindeer Sven to guide her up the mountain. They encounter Olaf a snowman that Elsa had accidently brought to life. Olaf leads them to Elsa but Elsa?s fear of hurting Anna again causes her to panic and she accidently strikes Anna again with her magic while driving them away.

Anna learns that the only thing that can save her is ?a selfless act of love? which everyone assumes ?true love?s first kiss,? but in the end she is saved when she steps in front of sword that was meant to harm her sister without a shield. This selfless act of love heals Anna and allows Elsa to understand how to control her powers.

At the end of the movie Anna has learned that the man she thought she loved at first sight Hans was actually a creep and that Kristoff loves her. Elsa learns to control her gifts and brings joy to the town and gives Olaf, the snowman, a special snow cloud that allows him to live in the summer.

This wildly popular movie has many different spiritual insights and I would like to share with you some of the ones I noticed right away.

10. Rituals can be a good place to start over.
After the death of their parents, Elsa and Anna do not seem to know how to move on. Elsa returns to her room and mourns. Anna runs around the empty castle trying to entice her sister to come out and hang out with her. The coronation ceremony created a time for the two girls to interact with one another again. I believe that this in a small way can show the power of ritual. When we as Catholics do not know who to reconcile with God for our sins, we know we can go to the Sacrament of Reconciliation. When we don?t know how to express to God our fears and our dreams we can go to Eucharist (which literally means ?thanksgiving.?

09. Understanding the Other Side
A lot of the conflict between Elsa and Anna takes place because neither tries to understand where the other is coming from. Anna does understand the difficulties Elsa feels because of her frozen touch and Elsa does not understand Anna?s need to be around people and to know why Elsa keeps the door close when it comes to Anna.

08. Assume the Best in People we know
I found it amusing how easy it was for Anna to assume the best in Hans and Kristoff but not in her own sister. Sometimes it is easier to give a stranger the benefit of the doubt than it is to give to a family member because family members have hurt us before. More times than not though it is our family who really has our best interest at heart.

07. Love at First Sight is Stupid
In the movie Anna meets Hans and thinks that he is her true love. Later we discover that Hans is an evil man who is only looking to take over the kingdom. It made me think of something I read about their being three stages to every vocations. The first stage being the ?vocation stage? where you simple ask the questions ?what am I going to do with my life?? or ?what does God want me to do with my life?? The second stage is the ?probation stage,? where a person explores whether or not the vocation may or may not be for them. Guys thinking about the priesthood attend the seminary and learn about the demands of the priesthood for example. Those who are thinking about marriage begin to date and ask themselves the question ?am I willing to change some of my bad habits for this person?? and/or ?am I willing to accept his or her bad habits if they never change?. Eventually all vocations move to the ?oblation stage? where everyone involves jumps right in with no turning back. It is important therefore to let love mature if you will and never to act to quickly.

06. Snowman and Summer
When Kristoff and Anna meet Olaf, the snowman, for the first time Olaf tells them he cannot wait to experience summer and Kristoff wants to tell him that snowmen melt during the summer but at the end of the movie though thanks to Elsa?s magic Olaf is able to survive all year round because of his own personal little cold front. This little side story reminded me to simply believe that miracles can happen.

05. Every decision I make effects everyone else.
When Elsa runs away, she feels that she is doing the best for everyone else. She also experiences a joy of not having to be so careful anymore. She did not know that her leaving caused a perpetual winter in her kingdom. Whenever I am not the person God has called me to be there is that much less love in the world and the world is a little colder.

04. Nobody want to be alone
There are times when I do literally want to be alone with myself in order to think and pray. Loneliness though is more than that. No one wants to be constantly lonely especially if it is caused by a fear of being unwanted. ?The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty -- it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There's a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God.? ? Mother Teresa.

03. Fear and Silence are powerful allies to Evil and Chaos.
I also wondered how much of this could have been avoided if the parents instead of insisting Elsa hid her gifts and out of fear forced her to live a certain way had instead walked with their daughters and talked to them about Elsa?s gift. The first thing I noticed after Anna was healed by the troll king was how the silence was not good because it divided the girls and it divided the royal family from the people. Sin always divides. God?s love always unifies.

02. Our Gifts can be our weaknesses and our weaknesses can be our gifts.
If the story of Elsa and Anna was true then the question would have to be asked why did God give Elsa the gift of snow magic knowing that so many people could be hurt by it. The answer comes at the end of the movie though when we Elsa using her gift to make so many other people happy. It was not the gift that was bad but the way Elsa tried to control it. We all have gifts and talents but sometimes we can use them to hurt other people. A passionate person can easily become a bully if he begins to try to force other people to see things his way. It does not mean his cause is wrong but that he has taken the gift that God has given him and used it in the wrong way.

01. Love is
One of the things that I loved about the movie was how the characters learn that true love is not some mushy feeling between a guy and a girl but love is wanting what is best for another person even if it requires a sacrifice on my part. Olaf, the snowman, showed his love for Anna by being willing to melt in order to help Anna escape the evil prince and Anna showed her love for her sister by stepping in front of the sword that was meant to kill Elsa. This of course is the story of Jesus who sacrificed for us in order to show us God?s love.