It’s been 50 years since the Beatles first landed in America and appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. I’m a pretty avid Beatles fan, and like following the continued legacy of the band. My favorite aspect of the Beatles is the songwriting team of Paul McCartney and John Lennon. The Beatles were a phenomenon many […]
If we want our children to become saints, they will need to hear the call of God — a vocation to holiness that applies to all of us. But how will they be able to hear that call if their lives are full of noise? In our digital age, young people have more noise and […]
In 2005 Science journal reported the discovery of soft tissue in the bones of a Tyrannosaurus rex, and how it got there has been debated ever since. Dr. Mary H. Schweitzer, whose research team found the soft tissue, maintains that it was preserved by an exceptional process over the 65 million years since T-rexes became extinct. […]
Have you ever found a really good series of kids’ books, something the kids love to hear read aloud and to re-read on their own (or for our kids, to leaf through and look at the pictures again), but wished that there was something more in them than a light adventure story? I love reading […]
Why should your family have sacred rules and what should they be? Those are the questions Tim and Sue Muldoon set out to answer in Six Sacred Rules for Families: A Spirituality for the Home (Ave Maria Press, 2013). As the Muldoons state, “Rules keep everyone on the same page; rules help us plan for […]
Good versus good hardly seems like a movie plot, but in Grace Unplugged Divine good versus worldly goods is pitted against one another. At the heart of the conflict is the pull of a Father’s love and concern for his 18-year-old daughter and her push to get out from under his shadow and make it […]
I got a chance tonight to grab a few friends and go see Gimme Shelter staring Vanessa Hudgens. I was looking forward to supporting a movie that would tell the story of a young woman’s struggle through a harrowing life and teen pregnancy. It would be a movie that would not insult my ears with […]
Even those who have a great relationship with their own mothers can appreciate how the mother-daughter bond colors the way they parent their own children. Suddenly and without warning, we begin channeling our own childhood soundtrack in recipes, songs, and other traditions — for better or worse (“Because I SAID so…”). In Mothering Without a Map: […]
From writer/director Spike Jonez’, Her is a rather extraordinary film. It’s really a science fiction/love story about A.I. (artificial intelligence). Set in what looks like the near future, Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix doing his best work to date and visually carrying the entire film) works for a company called “Beautiful Handwritten Letters” that composes letters for people. Not business letters or […]
“Vice prevails and impious men bear sway.” Such was the prevailing ethic during the Roman Republic’s demise. Meanwhile citizens were compelled to witness the onset of the “greatness” of the tyrannical era of Caesars. In America too, national greatness has been reduced mainly to status as a military superpower exerting global cultural influence. To restore […]
Each time I make something for dinner that one or both the children don’t like, the familiar refrain resounds: “Tell us the story of the baked beans!” When I was about six or seven, my mother made homemade baked beans for dinner, which I refused to eat. After an hour of watching me poke at […]
To the extent that art really does imitate life, every American owes it to themselves and to our troops to see the blockbuster film, Lone Survivor. Panned by cynical elites as “shameless war-porn,” in reality this movie portrays the heroism and sacrifice of four members of Seal Team 10 during a mission gone bad in the mountains of […]
After eight years of continual accusations of doing “nothing” by mainstream media, it has been revealed that Benedict XVI was busy throughout his pontificate removing priests from office who were found guilty of sexual abuse. From 2011-2012, Pope Benedict “defrocked” or laicised 384 priests, more than twice the 171 removed from the clerical state in […]
One of the stupidest things I ever said was to two street urchins in Dublin, Ireland. My friend Margie and I were college students headed back to our bed and breakfast after a night on the town. The two bedraggled boys of around 8 or 9 years of age had asked us for candy. “Go […]
The U.S. edition of the men’s style and lifestyle magazine Esquire recently named Pope Francis as its Best Dressed Man of 2013. The magazine explained that the decision was “unconventional,” but insisted that the way that the pope dresses has “signaled a new era (and for many, renewed hope) for the Catholic Church.” Mark-Evan Blackman, […]
Nebraska–the latest offering from director Alexander Payne (Sideways, The Descendants)–is more of Payne’s unblinking look at the difficulty of human relationships and relatedness. Reminiscent of David Fincher’s The Straight Story, Nebraska is in the road trip film genre, a physical journey of an old man (an unbelievable performance by Bruce Dern) trying to set things […]
In Handle with Care, Picoult refers to a “language of loss” that parents and children endure in the most intimate family relationships. Within adoptive families, these losses can be especially complex — if for no other reason, because of the number of people involved in the family bond. As parents, however, we must be willing to see – and […]
During a wintery January night in my apartment, while attending college years ago, I was channel surfing, and found a sci-fi movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey. I watched in hypnotized awe at the spectacular cinematography. Later on, I was shocked to learn the movie was made in 1968, and not during the late 80s as […]
I usually avoid marriage-help books like the plague because, in general, I find them far removed from the reality of married life. “Theology of the Body” is beautiful and the ideal, but at least in my sixteen years of experience, has relatively little to do with the ins and outs of getting up every day, […]
Have you heard the argument against the existence of God based on the size of the universe? You might find it strange that an argument against God would be constructed based on the enormity of space — something that elicits awe and wonder. But it is, and it goes like this: You see how big the […]
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is, of course, Part Two in a three-part cinematic extravaganza of Tolkien’s beloved book: The Hobbit. How did Peter Jackson and Co. get three movies out of it? By drawing on The Silmarillion and other background information. Perhaps some Tolkien purists are not happy with this amalgam, but for the […]
I must begin by saying that Disney has few more intense critics than this writer. I didn’t create an entirely Disney-free household for my children, but those materials generated by that empire that made their way past the threshold were clearly in enemy territory. We made a tenuous peace with some, but refused to be […]
At Ave Maria Press, I enjoy working closely with authors to help them “develop their craft.” Rewriting and platform-building are two of the most challenging tasks for any writer, so I am always looking for helpful resources. Vinita’s new book, The Art of Spiritual Writing, is one I highly recommend for those new to the spiritual […]
