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Good Morning. Film director Martin Scorsese made a heart-felt plea in a magazine interview this week for people who watch films, to avoid watching them on their phones. “Please don’t” he urged, suggesting that a much bigger device was needed. The interview coincided with the release of his latest movie The Irishman. It’s three and a half hours long and, having seen it this week, I fully understand why it would be a cinematic spectacle on the big screen if you can spare the time to watch it. Which is why Jason Gay, in the Wall Street Journal confessed to Scorcese “I’m sorry, I watched [the movie] on my phone” because as a young father the only time he ever watches a movie these days on the big screen is when he takes his kids to the cinema. It’s true, isn’t it, that how you see something inevitably affects your appreciation and understanding of it. For over a decade now the way we watch tv programmes and creative video content such as movies has been shifting relentlessly from fixed screen to mobile devices. It’s almost impossible to travel anywhere without observing large numbers of people glued to their screens and mostly, it has to be said, via their phones. Seeing “the big picture” is one of those phrases used across a wide range of disciplines. Indeed, we hear it all the time. The Cambridge dictionary describes The Big Picture both as the most important facts about a situation as well as the effects of that situation on other things. The reality is that we occasionally remind ourselves of what the big picture is. Whilst at the same time, we can’t help but focus continuously on the here and now- the smaller screen view of our lives. Again, it all boils down to the amount of time we have available to us and the consequent commitment. This is certainly also true from a faith perspective. As a Christian, as a priest, it is so easy for me to get lost in the minutiae of everyday life and activity- the doing rather than the being . The bigger picture of why I’m here, what’s it all about, how my faith can help in in this situation is easily distorted because I go from one task or crisis to another in my daily work. It’s another reason why Advent is such a special time because the imminent arrival of Christmas, and of a message of hope and peace, is a bit like one of the wonderful cinema trailers: “this bigger picture really is coming soon to a community near you”. In her sublime novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Attwood writes: “Perspective is necessary. Otherwise you live with your face squashed up against a wall.” And she is so right. Whilst the small screen might increasingly shape our lives in a digital world – we must never lose sight of how our lives look on the bigger screen of true perspective.