Looking to make the most of the new year? Thinking that your life needs an attitude adjustment but aren’t sure where to begin? The Best is Yet to Come: Living Fully in Each Moment by Sr. Anne Bryan Smollin (Sorin Books, 2016) offers a wonderful guide to squeezing the maximum amount of joy out of […]
Coming out of high school in 2012, Joe Burger was not offered a scholarship to Ohio State University. Undeterred, he worked hard at contributing to the team in any way he could. His work has paid off, as he was awarded a scholarship last year. And now the linebacker is a senior captain of the […]
DO NOT WATCH THE TRAILER! GIVES TOO MUCH AWAY! Don’t Breathe is a much ballyhooed suspense-thriller from 38-year-old Uruguayan horror-meister, Fede Alvarez, that I was very eager to see. I don’t do straight-up horror/slasher films, but I could tell that Don’t Breathe had more of the air of a thriller, and I wasn’t wrong. It’s […]
Mel Gibson has done it again. Hacksaw Ridge is the cinematic event of 2016-2017. Hacksaw Ridge is the true story of Private Desmond Doss, a Seventh-Day Adventist from Virginia who enlists in World War II, but — as a conscientious objector — staunchly refuses to bear arms. Literally. He won’t even touch a gun, let […]
In today’s electronic world of tweets and status updates, communicating with brevity is everything. 101 Tips for Marrying the Right Person: Helping Singles Find Each other, Contemplate Marriage, and Say I Do by the Ruth Institute’s Jennifer Roback Morse and Betsy Kerekes speaks to the internet generation in a language and format that keeps up […]
What would you look like if you could see yourself as Jesus sees you? Who would you be if Jesus healed all your wounds, both physical and emotional? For most of us, the answers to those questions are a far cry from who we are today. We have been beaten down by the weight of […]
I am not an avid fiction reader. If I’m lucky I make my way through one or two novels a year. More often than not my nose can be found in theological texts, most likely Mariological in nature. My reading of novels might make an increase as I recently discovered the wonders of Audible and […]
A new film aptly entitled Denial — about a famous Holocaust-denial court case–is a jewel. I hope it will be used in classrooms. I will be doing some SPOILERS in this review in order to pick apart the storyline, as well as the reality of dealing with Holocaust deniers. Rachel Weisz plays professor, historian and […]
Much has been said of the Anthropic Coincidences, the special values of physical constants and force laws that enable a universe to support carbon-based life. Even more remarkable, I believe, are the wonderful physical-chemical processes that sustain the life of living things, from the simplest one-celled organisms to us, all of which are made possible by […]
VidAngel is the market-leading entertainment platform empowering users to filter language, nudity, violence, and other content from movies and TV shows. It continues to earn a surge of grassroots support as the company prepares for its preliminary injunction hearing in late October. Disney—along with Warner Bros, 20th Century Fox, and Lucasfilm—has taken legal action to […]
Mary’s Way: The Power of Entrusting Your Child to God by Judy Landrieu Klein is the latest offering in the CatholicMom.com book collection. In the Introduction, Klein states that “it is among a mother’s most important labors to pray diligently for her children.” She also offers two life lessons that she has learned from motherhood: […]
Even people who have no interest in Japanese culture or anime are suddenly aware of Pokémon Go. So popular, according to Google Analytics, it has surpassed even pornography as the most accessed thing on the internet. (See the Newsweek report here). The game has been covered in the media, discredited by disgruntled homeowners, and brought […]
In 1986, 21-year-old Susan Conroy traveled to Calcutta to work with Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity. She and the holy woman developed a friendship that would last until Mother Teresa’s death in 1997. In Praying with Mother Teresa, Conroy offers her own reflections along with quotes and letters from Mother Teresa, prayers from […]
The latest big screen Ben-Hur is a fresh take on the beloved 1880 historical fiction novel: Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace that deftly and intricately weaves the story of Judah Ben-Hur into the Gospel account of Jesus. However, it sadly limps in the faith department, which, of course, is the punchline […]
The beloved classic, The Little Prince, was released simultaneously in theaters and on Netflix, and will not disappoint fans of the fable. Jeff Bridges’ rich, warm, craggy American voice brings to life Saint-Exupéry, the author and aviator. Three different kinds of storytelling visuals are utilized: the now-familiar computer animation, sporting oversized heads and large, expressive […]
Part one of this discussion can be found here. More subtly, Game of Thrones can be used to validate Machiavellian politics and shadowy character traits. Instead of mixed characters simply being portrayed as sympathetic due to the human condition, their warped aspects are made to seem acceptable and even heroic. It becomes more important to […]
Scientists love to give themselves “ethical guidelines” — only to “reevaluate” and revise those guidelines when they are no longer convenient. A perfect recent example of this came this May when scientists in two separate studies reported keeping embryos alive, healthy and developing for 12-13 days. In both studies the embryos grew autonomously and began […]
Game of Thrones, the wildly popular HBO series based off of George R.R. Martin’s high fantasy book series A Song of Ice and Fire, is a presently unavoidable part of popular culture. Praised for its high production values, including acting, costuming, setting, and cinematography, and dubbed one of the “epic sagas of our times”, the […]
I’m going to call the latest documentary on John Paul II an “almost perfect documentary.” The title is: Liberating a Continent: John Paul II and the Fall of Communism. Why is it almost perfect? Because it’s Rolls Royce super-classy in every way. The production values are off the chain, the august interviewees always on point, […]
When Pope Francis spoke to the UN last September he warned about what he called “ideological colonization.” By that he meant the attempt to import or impose a vision of human sexuality at odds with traditional peoples. The African Bishops have repeatedly warned about how traditional way of life is under pressure from ideological colonization. […]
“Scientists are slowly waking up to an inconvenient truth – the universe looks suspiciously like a fix. The issue concerns the very laws of nature themselves. For 40 years, physicists and cosmologists have been quietly collecting examples of all too convenient “coincidences” and special features in the underlying laws of the universe that seem to […]
We have all heard it, yet most of us would not be able to name it. The term polyphony (from the Greek for “many sounds”) is used to describe music that employs simultaneous yet independent melodies. This can occur in secular or spiritual songs, and the spiritual realm includes both sacred music (typically using a […]
With a juicy, promising title and a screen populated with adorable, fuzzy furballs of varied shapes and sizes, the animated smash hit: The Secret Life of Pets is a fun Summer escapade for all ages. The different personalities of species and dog breeds are, well, typecast. The goofy guinea pig, the self-involved cat, the excitable […]
If you were ever in search of a film to spur your church community into pro-life action, a new film called Voiceless may be just the ticket. “Voiceless is a call to the church,” said Jason Jones, co-executive producer of the film. “Now more than ever as we see no relief from our judiciary or […]
