Abandonment to Divine Providence
Father Jean Pierre De Caussade S.J.
From the intro: "The Rev. Jean Pierre de Caussade was one of the most remarkable spiritual writers of the Society of Jesus in France in the 18th Century. His death took place at Toulouse in 1751. His works have gone through many editions and have been republished, and translated into several foreign languages. A portion of this remarkable work in English has already appeared in America, but many readers, to whom this precious little book has become a favourite, will welcome a complete translation, especially as what has already appeared m the English version may be considered as merely the theoretical part, whilst the "Letters of Direction" which form the greater portion of the present work give the practical part. They answer objections, solve difficulties, and give practical advice. The book thus gains considerably in value and utility. It is divided into two unequal parts, the first containing a treatise on total abandonment to Divine Providence, and the second, letters of direction for persons leading a spiritual life. The " Treatise " comprises two different aspects of Abandonment to Divine Providence; one as a virtue, common and necessary to all Christians, the other as a state, proper to souls who have made a special practice of abandonment to the holy will of God."
APOSTOLIC LETTER
MULIERIS DIGNITATEM
OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF JOHN PAUL II ON THE DIGNITY AND VOCATION OF WOMEN
Mulieris Dignitatem
Published by Endow
Study Guide to John Paul II's
Apostolic Letter on the Dignity and Vocation of Women
Between Midnight and Dawn
Sarah Arthur
A literary guide to prayer for Lent, Holy Week, & Eastertide.
Experience the liturgical seasons of Lent, Holy Week, and Eastertide in the company of poets and novelists from across the centuries.
Egg & Spoon
Gregory Maguire
Elena Rudina lives in the impoverished Russian countryside, and there is no food. But then a train arrives in the village, a train carrying a cornucopia of food, untold wealth, and a noble family destined to visit the Tsar in Saint Petersburg—a family that includes Ekaterina, a girl of Elena’s age. When the two girls’ lives collide, an adventure is set in motion, an escapade that includes mistaken identity, a monk locked in a tower, a prince traveling incognito, and—in a starring role only Gregory Maguire could have conjured—Baba Yaga, witch of Russian folklore, in her ambulatory house perched on chicken legs.
Glorious Adventure
Phillip Douglas
Discovering the Treasure of Taking Christ to the Nations
Do you desire to share the joy and love of Jesus Christ that is welling up within you? Do you dream of following Jesus in a radical manner without constantly counting the cost?
Glorious Adventure invites all of us deeper into the heart of Jesus Christ and His command to go and make disciples of all nations. The stories and testimonies inside this book bring us to the heart of the mission of the Church: to evangelize.
Through stories of personal experience, full time lay Catholic missionary, Phillip Douglas details the joys, sorrows, and blessings of his family taking Christ to all nations. Our lives are so short and many are still waiting to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Go! You Are Sent
Genie Summers
An incredible odyssey of faith.
Genie and Frank Summers and their family were lay missionaries in many different parts of the world. Genie's first book length work covers many of the stories that she and her family have experienced as lay missionaries. Genie Summers, wife, mother and foreign Lay Catholic Missionary Evangelist, has been published seriously since the early 1970's. She wrote editorials and articles in both Christian and secular press.
Our Family's Book of Acts
Genie Summers
To Love and Serve the Lord
"This is a remarkable story. Its Genie Summers' 2nd book in the chronicle of her family's life as Catholic lay missionaries, a journey that began in the early 1970's. Our Family's Book of Acts is a faith-filled recounting of God moving powerfully. He heals, He gives hope, and He changes lives. Entire neighborhoods are transformed by God's love flowing through Frank and Genie's missionary life. Sometimes the miracles are not as big, but just as obvious. On one occasion, ten hamburger patties get cooked, but when it comes time to serve there are eleven - just enough to feed another guest who's joined them for lunch. On another, there are four kids and three lollipops, but when they're handed out there are now four - one for each kid! "- Graham Smith
The Heart of Perfection
Colleen Carroll Campbell
How the Saints Taught Me to Trade My Dream of Perfect for God's
Gorgeously written and deeply insightful, Colleen Carroll Campbell’s The Heart of Perfection shows that the solution to perfectionism is not to squelch our hard-wired desires for excellence but to allow God to purify and redirect them, by swapping the chains of control and comparison for pursuit of a new kind of perfection: the freedom of the children of God.
Hiding in the Upper Room
Kelly Breaux
How the Catholic Sacraments Healed Me from Child Loss
Kelly and Ryan Breaux were given a cross that no parent should have to carry…watching two of their children die before their very eyes. For years, Kelly battled numbness, despair, and anger, repeatedly asking God '“why?”
Though Catholic, she avoided attending Mass where she was haunted by images of the funerals, by other little children who resembled her own children, by people looking at her with sympathetic eyes or asking questions she didn’t want to answer.
Until one night when God visited Kelly in a dream and gave her the answer she’d been asking of Him. This dream punctured the ice of grief that Kelly had been trapped under and felt a deep longing for intimacy with God.
Through the sacraments of the Catholic Church, God has given Kelly a way to turn her grief into a mission of love and healing.
Made This Way
Leila Miller and Trent Horn
How to Prepare Kids to Face Today's Tough Moral Issues
In Made This Way: How to Prepare Kids to Face Today's Tough Moral Issues, Leila Miller and Trent Horn give parents (guardians and teachers, too!) crucial tools and techniques to form children with the understanding they need—appropriate to their age and maturity level—to meet the world's challenges.
On Pilgrimage
Dorothy Day
When "On Pilgrimage" was first published in 1948, Dorothy Day was not only the head of the Catholic Worker movement. She was also a mother, a grandmother, a reformer, a pacifist, a public speaker, a voracious reader, a gifted writer and a passionate believer. In this book, actually a diary she kept during 1948, she wrote about all of these facets of her life. But whether describing her visits to her daughters farm or the writings of the saints, she was always exploring the same thing, namely, the many gifts of God's love and how we should respond to them.
One Thousand Gifts
Ann Voskamp
In One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are, Ann strives to find the meaning of life and fully embrace the surprising truth from the final scenes of Jesus’ earthly life. In the hours before Jesus’ execution, he took bread and gave thanks. This fresh, heart-wrenching book unveils the long forgotten wonder that through the imitation of Christ’s thankfulness, we too can experience a life of joy.
Searching for and Maintaining Peace
Father Jacques Phillipe
A Small Treatise on Peace of Heart
We live in a day and age characterized by an extraordinary amount of agitation and lack of peace. This tendency manifests itself in our spiritual as well as our secular life. In our search for God and holiness, in our service to our neighbor, a kind of restlessness and anxiety take the place of the confidence and peace which ought to be ours. What must we do to overcome the moments of fear and distress which assail us all too often in our lives? How can we learn to place all our confidence in God and abandon ourselves into his loving care? This is what is taught in this simple, yet profound little treatise on peace of heart. Taking concrete examples from our everyday life, the author invites us to respond in a Gospel fashion to the upsetting situations we must all confront. Since peace of heart is a pure gift of God, it is something we should seek, pursue and ask him for without cease. This book is here to help us in that pursuit.
Sounding the Seasons
Malcolm Guite
Seventy Sonnets for the Christian Year
Poetry has always been a central element of Christian spirituality and is increasingly used in worship, in pastoral services and guided meditation. In Sounding the Seasons, Cambridge poet, priest and singer-songwriter Malcolm Guite transforms seventy lectionary readings into lucid, inspiring poems, for use in regular worship, seasonal services, meditative reading or on retreat.
Already widely recognized, Malcolm's writing has been acclaimed by Rowan Williams and Luci Shaw, two leading contemporary religious poets. Seven Advent poems from this collection will appear in the next edition of Penguin's (US) Best Spiritual Writing edited by Philip Zaleski, alongside the work of writers such as Seamus Heaney and Annie Dillard.
Theology of the Home
Carrie Gress
Noelle Mering
Megan Schrieber
Finding the Eternal in the Everyday
Home. It is an elegant word, at once both simple and far-reaching. Home is that place where we are meant to be safe, nurtured, known for who we are, and able to live and love freely. Even for those from broken homes or homes that no longer exist, there is still something in the idea that pulls at us.
Undone
Carrie Schuchts Daunt
Freeing your Feminine Heart from the Knots of Fear and Shame by Carrie Schuchts Daunt
In this collection of raw and redemptive testimonies from Catholic women such as Lisa Brenninkmeyer and Jen Settle, Carrie Schuchts Daunt of the John Paul II Healing Center invites you to seek God’s healing grace so that you can reclaim your heart and your truest self. Peppered with essential spiritual exercises, prayer guides, and reflections, Undone ushers you through a vulnerable search for truth as you discover who you are at your deepest feminine core.
Worshipping A Hidden God
Archbishop Luis M. Martinez
Unlocking the Secrets of the Interior Life
To find God, says Martinez, we have to seek Him, but through His ways, not ours. With the wise spirituality of St. John of the Cross and St. Therese of Lisieux as your guide, Worshipping a Hidden God shows you how to live in the “obscurity of faith” — the light which infallibly leads you to God.
You’ll learn how to become detached from both consolations and desolations, leaving behind the perturbations of the world that shake the faith of those who don’t.
Bishop Martinez doesn’t offer new rules of prayer or demand that you abandon the forms of meditation that suit you. He simply reminds you that our God is a hidden God which can be found only through the gaze of faith.
Our Sunday Visitor has a discounted curated list of 40 of our eBooks to provide Catholics with accessible resources to help them know, live, and love their faith more deeply even in the midst of quarantine.
Our Sunday Visitor serves millions of Catholics and Catholic organizations globally through publishing, offertory and communication services. Established in 1912, Our Sunday Visitor publishes OSV Newsweekly, The Priest, a wide range of books and Catholic curriculum, develops digital offerings such as websites, web-based giving and digital apps, and provides complete communication, stewardship, and offertory programs.
Our Sunday Visitor is a not-for profit organization. A portion of net earnings from resources are returned back to the Catholic Community through grants for catechesis, vocations, evangelization, and to advance the culture of Catholic life.
Devotional Stories for Little Folks
Nancy Nicholson
Much more than entertaining reading! Are you searching for ways to reinforce character-building lessons? Looking for opportunities to guide your children toward knowledge, love, and service of God? We know that what we present to our children to read does matter, and that it isn't always easy to be in this world but not "of it." These devotional stories may be used for daily devotions, as gentle examples for moral training, or for primary reading practice and enjoyment.
The Light Princess
George MacDonald
The Light Princess is a short story that is warm and humorous, with a surprisingly poignant conclusion. A princess doomed by a witch to lose her “gravity” results in a silly heroine that has neither physical nor spiritual weight. George MacDonald’s masterful teaching on the subject of sacrificial love is delivered eloquently in the events and characters of this engaging story.
Little Women
Louisa May Alcott
It is no surprise that Little Women, the adored classic of four devoted sisters, was loosely based on Louisa May Alcott’s own life. In fact, Alcott drew from her own personality to create a heroine unlike any seen before: Jo, willful, headstrong, and undoubtedly the backbone of the March family. Follow the sisters from innocent adolescence to sage adulthood, with all the joy and sorrow of life in between, and fall in love with them and this endearing story. Praised by Madeleine Stern as “a book on the American home, and hence universal in its appeal,” Little Women has been an avidly read tale for generations.
Little Visits with God
Allan Hart Jahsmann
Martin P. Simon
Each devotion clearly articulates the message of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ and offers practical examples of God's action on our lives today. Each includes a Bible verse, short reading, activity suggestion, and prayer starter.
The Long Winter
Laura Ingalls Wilder
The adventures of Laura Ingalls and her family continue as Pa, Ma, Laura, Mary, Carrie, and little Grace bravely face the hard winter of 1880-81 in their little house in the Dakota Territory. Blizzards cover the little town with snow, cutting off all supplies from the outside. Soon there is almost no food left, so young Almanzo Wilder and a friend make a dangerous trip across the prairie to find some wheat. Finally a joyous Christmas is celebrated in a very unusual way in this most exciting of all the Little House books.
The Penderwicks
Jeanne Birdsall
A Summer tale of four sisters, two rabbits, and a very interesting boy.
This summer the Penderwick sisters have a wonderful surprise: a holiday on the grounds of a beautiful estate called Arundel. Soon they are busy discovering the summertime magic of Arundel’s sprawling gardens, treasure-filled attic, tame rabbits, and the cook who makes the best gingerbread in Massachusetts. But the best discovery of all is Jeffrey Tifton, son of Arundel’s owner, who quickly proves to be the perfect companion for their adventures.
The icy-hearted Mrs. Tifton is not as pleased with the Penderwicks as Jeffrey is, though, and warns the new friends to stay out of trouble. Which, of course, they will—won’t they? One thing’s for sure: it will be a summer the Penderwicks will never forget. Deliciously nostalgic and quaintly witty, this is a story as breezy and carefree as a summer day.
The Rise and Fall of Mount Majestic
Jennifer Trafton
Brett Helquist
Ten-year-old Persimmony Smudge lives a boring life on the Island in the Middle of Everything, but she longs for adventure. And she soon gets it when she overhears a life-altering secret and suddenly finds herself in the middle of an amazing journey. It turns out that Mount Majestic, the rising and falling mountain in the center of the island, is not really a mountain - it's the belly of a sleeping giant! It's up to Persimmony and her friend Worvil to convince the island's quarreling inhabitants that a giant is sleeping in their midst and must not be awakened. The question is, will she be able to do it?
Saints for Young Readers for Every Day
This two volume set brings a year's worth of saints into the life of a child. They meet kings and queens who were saints, holy priests and sisters, parents, teenagers, and even other children. There are Saints who were doctors, farmers, soldiers, nurses, teachers, architects, and scientists, including men and women of diverse ethnicity and situation of life.
The Secret Garden
Frances Hodgson Burnett
When orphaned Mary Lennox comes to live at her uncle's great house on the Yorkshire Moors, she finds it full of secrets. The mansion has nearly one hundred rooms, and her uncle keeps himself locked up. And at night, she hears the sound of crying down one of the long corridors.
The gardens surrounding the large property are Mary's only escape. Then, Mary discovers a secret garden, surrounded by walls and locked with a missing key. With the help of two unexpected companions, Mary discovers a way in—and becomes determined to bring the garden back to life.
A Single Shard
Linda Sue Park
Ree-ear, an orphan, lives under a bridge in Ch’ulp’o, a potters’ village famed for delicate celadon ware. He has become fascinated with the potter’s craft; he wants nothing more than to watch master potter Min at work, and he dreams of making a pot of his own someday. When Min takes Tree-ear on as his helper, Tree-ear is elated–until he finds obstacles in his path: the backbreaking labor of digging and hauling clay, Min’s irascible temper, and his own ignorance. But Tree-ear is determined to prove himself–even if it means taking a long, solitary journey on foot to present Min’s work in the hope of a royal commission . . . even if it means arriving at the royal court with nothing to show but a single celadon shard.
7 Riddles to Nowhere
A.J. Cattapan
Can a seventh grade boy solve the riddles to inherit a fortune and save his school?
All seventh grader Kameron Boyd wants to do is keep his little Catholic school from closing. It’s the only school where they’ve made life as a selective mute somewhat bearable. As the school faces financial distress, Kam learns he is one of many potential heirs to a fortune large enough to keep his school open.
With the school’s bully as one of the other potential heirs, Kam and his friends race to solve the riddles first. Their journey takes them through the churches of Chicago to decipher the hidden meanings in artwork all while avoiding the mysterious men following them.
But creepy men in trench coats won’t stop them! They’re on a quest–not only to keep the school open, but to help Kam recover his voice.
Reviews taken from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Website
Though reasonably satisfying as an action picture, this iteration of Lew Wallace's 1880 novel suffers from a poorly written script that fails to convince when the classic story's religious theme comes to the fore. First-century Jewish prince Judah Ben-Hur (Jack Huston) lives a prosperous life in Jerusalem where he carries on a friendly rivalry with his Roman adopted brother (Toby Kebbell), and finds marital happiness with his true love (Nazanin Boniadi). But after he gives shelter to a young zealot (Moises Arias) who was wounded fighting against foreign rule -- personified by Pontius Pilate (Pilou Asbaek) -- disaster strikes. So, too, does betrayal since his foster sibling, now an influential army officer, refuses to risk his career by helping the family that took him in as a child. Consigned to the miserable existence of a galley slave, Judah thirsts for revenge until multiple encounters with Jesus (Rodrigo Santoro) open his eyes to the value of forgiveness and reconciliation. While aficionados of the 1959 version may find such scenes as the epic sea battle and the trademark chariot race lacking, considered strictly on their own they work well enough. But director Timur Bekmambetov and screenwriters Keith Clarke and John Ridley skimp on the careful and time-consuming character development that would have been needed to make the protagonist's ultimate conversion believable. Probably acceptable for older teens. Generally stylized but harsh violence with several grisly deaths and some gore, a nongraphic marital bedroom scene. The Catholic News Service classification is A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
PG-13
Faith-affirming drama, based on real events, in which a strong-willed mother (Chrissy Metz) refuses to accept that her adoptive son (Marcel Ruiz) is doomed to die after falling through the ice on a frozen lake and her desperate prayers have a startling impact on his seemingly hopeless prognosis. As she keeps vigil at the boy's bedside, she gradually reconciles with the pastor (Topher Grace) of her church with whom she had been feuding while her husband (Josh Lucas) struggles to share her unshakeable belief in a positive outcome. Director Roxann Dawson's adaptation of Joyce Smith's 2017 memoir “The Impossible” (written with Ginger Kolbaba) benefits from Metz's driven performance and will have sympathetic viewers cheering her character on all the way. Tense but gratifying entertainment for all but the youngest moviegoers. A perilous situation, mature themes. The Catholic News Service classification is A-II -- adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG -- parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.
PG
The Chosen (TV Series) gives us a soundly biblical Jesus in a profoundly biblical world. He’s cast not as an esoteric sage, self-help guru, hippy commune leader or political activist, but as the Lord who knows and possesses us utterly.
Revive your relationship with Jesus and the gospels as you immerse yourself in story lines right out of somebody’s fruitful imagination, unfolded in a way that gets you to see Jesus in a new light. Venerable (soon Blessed) Archbishop Fulton Sheen once said that a saint is someone who makes Jesus lovable to others. So the producers of this special series take on the challenge to do just that–make Jesus lovable to you. And the effect it can have is really quite stunning as you sense his humanity worn as comfortably as an old shoe. These aren’t sappy, sentimental storylines. You are brought into plausible domestic scenes within the actual gospel accounts–the stories you know, but this time from another person’s vantage point, including Peter’s wife, for example.
Lois Lowry's 1993 novel about a utopian world that, on the surface at least, is free from suffering, hunger, and violence arrives on the big screen, directed by Philip Noyce. A daily injection of every citizen ensures that memories and emotions are suppressed, along with freedom, choice, individuality, religion -- and temptation. When of age, each child receives a role to play in society, and the time has come for a mother (Katie Holmes) and father (Alexander Skarsgard) to present their son (Brenton Thwaites). Sensing something unusual about the teen, the Chief Elder (Meryl Streep) selects him to inherit the position of Receiver of Memories, a kind of repository of the past, from the current holder (Jeff Bridges). Experiencing love and joy but also cruelty, war, and death, the prot,g, reaches an epiphany: Without the knowledge of suffering, one cannot appreciate true joy. Discovering the utopia is based on a culture of death, he is determined to restore the proper balance to society. A disturbing scene involving euthanasia may upset younger viewers. For mature teens and their parents, however, it can spark a necessary conversation on the sanctity of life at all ages, winningly endorsed by this worthy film. Mild action violence. The Catholic News Service classification is A-II -- adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
PG-13
Luminous, though deliberately paced, fact-based drama recounting the events leading up to the 1943 martyrdom of Austrian farmer Franz Jagerstatter (August Diehl). Motivated by his deep Catholic faith, Jagerstatter, who was beatified in 2007, refused to swear the oath of loyalty to Adolf Hitler that was demanded of all those drafted into the Wehrmacht during World War II. Writer-director Terrence Malick focuses on the happy home life his gentle protagonist sacrificed in order to be obedient to his conscience, especially his spiritual and emotional bond with his wife, Franziska, known as Fani (Valerie Pachner), under whose influence he first became serious about his religion. Beautiful both to look at and to contemplate, Malick's film requires patience since it largely consists of scenes of ordinary domestic activities and farming chores, many of them overshadowed by the dread of what, at first, may lie ahead and later certainly does. Yet, by accretion, he builds a sturdy bridge of sympathy between the audience and the central duo, and his movie will be prized by believing viewers, its ambivalent portrayal of Jagerstatter's parish priest (Tobias Moretti) and bishop (Michael Nyqvist) notwithstanding. Mature themes, scenes of physical violence, an ambiguous portrayal of Catholic clergy. The Catholic News Service classification is A-II -- adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
PG-13
A Harvard educated lawyer (Michael B. Jordan) strives, with the help of a local activist (Brie Larson), to save the life of an Alabama death-row prisoner (Jamie Foxx) convicted on feeble evidence of the murder of an 18-year-old white woman. As the attorney tries to convince the key witness in the case (Tim Blake Nelson) to admit he perjured himself, the prosecutor (Rafe Spall) stands by the original verdict and the community backlash turns ugly. Director and co-writer Destin Daniel Cretton's adaptation of a 2014 memoir by Bryan Stevenson reaches back to events in the 1980s but also vividly demonstrates the on-going dangers posed by the application of capital punishment in a society still burdened by widespread racism. Yet this is much more than a message movie since Cretton and his script collaborator Andrew Lanham avoid caricature, showing that even some of their most misguided characters are capable of conversion. As a humane and winning study of a subject with immense real-world significance, it's possibly acceptable for older adolescents. Mature themes, a disturbing scene of execution, offscreen nudity in a strip search, a couple of mild oaths, a few crude and crass terms. The Catholic News Service classification is A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
PG-13
Life Is Beautiful -- Bittersweet comic fable in which an Italian Jewish bookseller (Roberto Benigni) uses his imagination to convince his little son that their grim existence in a Nazi concentration camp is just an elaborate contest and that they are sure to win the grand prize. Also co-written and directed by Benigni, the story starts off as a slapstick comedy with the young man courting his future wife, then midway becomes a touchingly human story of a parent's irrepressible determination to protect his child from terror and misery. Subtitles or dubbed. Theme of genocide. (A-II) (PG-13) ( 1998 )
PG-13
Lilies of the Field -- When an itinerant jack-of-all-trades (Sidney Poitier) stops to help a group of German nuns newly arrived in New Mexico, his cheerful generosity is disdained by the stern, demanding Mother Superior (Lilia Skala) until he builds them a chapel with the aid of the local Mexican-American community. Directed by Ralph Nelson, the movie's simple little story of the triumph of faith coupled with good will has enormous charm in the winning performances of the two principals, some good-natured comedy and an infectious theme song that will leave viewers humming "Amen." (A-I) (nr) ( 1963 )
PG
Well-intentioned but weak comedy about three stressed-out mothers (Sarah Drew, Patricia Heaton and Andrea Logan White) who take a break for a night on the town, only to have the relaxing excursion they've planned turn into a series of frantic misadventures. These involve not only their husbands (Sean Astin, Robert Amaya and Alex Kendrick) but a mother (Abbie Cobb) whose baby has gone missing, a British-born cabbie (David Hunt) and a heavily tattooed biker (country singer Trace Adkins). Christian themes are prominent in directors (and brothers) Jon and Andrew Erwin's wholesome film, and the quiet moments during which faith occupies center stage are more successful than the manufactured mayhem to which most of the running time is devoted. Fleeting slapstick violence. The Catholic News Service classification is A-I -- general patronage. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG -- parental guidance suggested.
PG
Fact-based sports drama recounting the life and untimely death of undersized -- and therefore unlikely -- college football star Freddie Steinmark (Finn Wittrock). Just as he was achieving lasting fame as the starting safety for the undefeated 1969 University of Texas Longhorns, Steinmark was sidelined by aggressive bone cancer; he died in 1971. Working from a biography by Jim Dent, director and screenwriter Angelo Pizzo downplays Steinmark's devout Catholic faith, focusing instead on the player's bond with his coach, Darrell Royal (Aaron Eckhart), as well as his chaste, supportive relationship with his girlfriend (Sarah Bolger). The narrative surge that carried two of Pizzo's earlier films, 1986's "Hoosiers" and 1993's "Rudy," into the end zone is absent from this honorable but maudlin tale. As a result, its doomed protagonist comes off as a bland and enigmatic figure. A single instance each of crude and crass language. The Catholic News Service classification is A-II -- adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG -- parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.
PG
A college freshman (Rachel Hendrix) plagued by chronic medical problems learns from her devoted parents (Jennifer Price and John Schneider) that they adopted her as an infant after she had survived an attempted abortion. Devastated and bewildered by the revelation, she sets out in search of her birth mother (Shari Rigby), accompanied on her journey by her best friend since childhood (Jason Burkey). In their feature debut, brothers Andrew and Jon Erwin helm a strongly pro-life message movie whose theme viewers dedicated to the dignity of all human beings will welcome unanimously. Opinions about the aesthetic package in which they wrap their point may be more divided. But adeptly shot bucolic settings and a strong performance by Jasmine Guy as a retired nurse who once worked in the abortion mill where the young heroine was almost killed are undeniable assets. Mature subject matter, potentially disturbing references. The Catholic News Service classification is A-II -- adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
PG-13
Bible-based drama in which St. Paul (pleasingly sonorous James Faulkner), imprisoned in Rome and facing martyrdom in the wake of that city's Great Fire of AD 64 -- which the Emperor Nero notoriously blamed on the followers of Jesus -- is visited by his longtime collaborator and friend St. Luke (Jim Caviezel) to whom he recounts the circumstances of his conversion and some of the other events chronicled in the Book of Acts. This new text is meant to give encouragement to the capital's persecuted Christians, led by husband and wife Aquila (John Lynch) and Priscilla (Joanne Whalley). But it also draws the attention of Paul's chief jailer (Olivier Martinez), an essentially humane man vaguely attracted to the Gospel and troubled by the grave illness of his beloved daughter. Writer-director Andrew Hyatt's film works better as an easy and enjoyable introduction to its two central figures' lives and works than it does considered strictly as a piece of cinema. The somewhat flawed script fleshes out the human details in a believable way, but unwisely presents famous verses and whole passages of Scripture as deriving from Paul's spontaneous conversation. Valuable chiefly as a catechetical resource, it makes acceptable and worthwhile fare for teens. Scenes of brutality and torture with some gore, a few gruesome images, mature references, including to prostitution. The Catholic News Service classification is A-II -- adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
PG-13
Olympic track and field legend Jesse Owens (Stephan James) is the focus of this entertaining film, chronicling Owens' journey to the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, where he won four gold medals and, as an African American, single-handedly dealt a devastating blow to Nazism and its belief in Aryan supremacy. Owens is discovered by his university coach (Jason Sudeikis), who recognizes his natural talent and proposes to train him for the 1936 Games. A U.S. boycott of the Olympics is narrowly averted when wicked Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels (Barnaby Metschurat) agrees to allow Jewish and black athletes to compete. As his fame grows, so does the pressure on Owens to be a role model for African Americans. He also pines for his fiancee (Shanice Banton) back home, caring for their baby daughter. Director Stephen Hopkins deftly explores the double meaning of the film's title, chronicling Owens' personal struggle against racism and bigotry while celebrating his astounding athletic achievements. What emerges is a valuable history lesson for adolescents as well as their parents, and an inspiring portrait of personal courage, determination, friendship, and tolerance. Adult themes, an out-of-wedlock pregnancy, and occasional crude and profane language. The Catholic News Service classification is A-II -- adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
PG-13
Princess Bride, The -- Affectionate, lighthearted parody of medieval romance as a young beauty (Robin Wright) is saved from a forced marriage to a nasty prince (Chris Sarandon) by a farm boy turned pirate (Cary Elwes). Directed by Rob Reiner from William Goldman's script, the comic proceedings are marked with verbal wit and some silly turns by Mandy Patinkin, Wallace Shawn and Billy Crystal. Some comic book violence. (A-II) ( 1987 )
PG
This compact, stylish horror film might be a parable about resisting tyranny. Taken strictly on its surface, it's a story about how strong, trusting family ties can overcome any obstacle, especially if the members of the clan in question (led by John Krasinski, who also directed and co-wrote the screenplay) are as technically adept as TV's MacGyver. Krasinski's character, his wife (Emily Blunt) and two surviving children (Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe) initially evade and eventually battle the invading aliens, armed with incredibly acute hearing, who killed his youngest. Gun and physical violence with fleeting gore, the death of a youngster, a scene of childbirth. The Catholic News Service classification is A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
PG-13
Olympic track and field legend Jesse Owens (Stephan James) is the focus of this entertaining film, chronicling Owens' journey to the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, where he won four gold medals and, as an African American, single-handedly dealt a devastating blow to Nazism and its belief in Aryan supremacy. Owens is discovered by his university coach (Jason Sudeikis), who recognizes his natural talent and proposes to train him for the 1936 Games. A U.S. boycott of the Olympics is narrowly averted when wicked Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels (Barnaby Metschurat) agrees to allow Jewish and black athletes to compete. As his fame grows, so does the pressure on Owens to be a role model for African Americans. He also pines for his fiancee (Shanice Banton) back home, caring for their baby daughter. Director Stephen Hopkins deftly explores the double meaning of the film's title, chronicling Owens' personal struggle against racism and bigotry while celebrating his astounding athletic achievements. What emerges is a valuable history lesson for adolescents as well as their parents, and an inspiring portrait of personal courage, determination, friendship, and tolerance. Adult themes, an out-of-wedlock pregnancy, and occasional crude and profane language. The Catholic News Service classification is A-II -- adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
PG-13
Uneven recounting of the real-life events through which a wealthy art dealer (Greg Kinnear) formed a seemingly unlikely friendship with a volatile but fundamentally decent homeless man (Djimon Hounsou). Anxious to repair the damage a recent affair has done to his marriage, the salesman reluctantly agrees to accompany his spiritually attuned wife (Renee Zellweger) on her visits to a local soup kitchen. There he gradually overcomes the initial hostility of his future pal and learns the moving details of the latter's personal history. So long as Hounsou dominates the scene, as he does while lyrically recalling his character's childhood, his redoubtable talent carries the film along. Though the other headliners of the cast -- including Jon Voight as the protagonist's booze-sodden estranged father -- bring their own formidable resumes to the project, they are less successful in overcoming the limitations of the script, adapted from the book penned by the actual amigos, Ron Hall and Denver Moore, by director Michael Carney, Alexander Foard and Hall. A nondenominational religious subtext and Gospel-congruent values help to hide the aesthetic blemishes and make this probably acceptable for older teens. Some nonlethal violence, a scene of marital intimacy, mature themes, including adultery and racial hatred, sexual references, innuendo. The Catholic News Service classification is A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
PG-13
"Tolkien," a sophisticated profile of the future novelist's youth, traces his passage from impoverished schoolboy (Harry Gilby) to Oxford University scholarship student and beleaguered officer in the trenches of World War I (Nicholas Hoult). Along the way, he bonds with a trio of precociously gifted peers (Anthony Boyle, Patrick Gibson and Tom Glynn-Carney) and falls for his future wife (Lily Collins). Director Dome Karukoski successfully conveys first the buoyant camaraderie that led the band of friends to regard themselves as brothers and later the horrors of the global conflict in which they were eventually caught up and the toll it exacted on them. (A-II, PG-13)
PG-13
Hard-hitting, fact-based drama adapted from a memoir by Abby Johnson. During her rise to become one of the youngest Planned Parenthood clinic directors in the country, Johnson (Ashley Bratcher) gradually becomes uneasy about the organization's marketing of abortion, a process of conversion that reaches a dramatic climax when she is asked to assist a doctor performing the procedure and witnesses via sonogram what it really involves. Her new stance is welcomed by her pro-life husband (Brooks Ryan) and parents (Robin DeMarco and Robert Thomason) as well as by some of the activists (Jared Lotz and Emma Elle Roberts) she once considered adversaries. But it infuriates her ornery former superior in the organization (Robia Scott) who becomes the moving force in a lawsuit against her. Written and directed by Chuck Konzelman and Cary Solomon, the film is effective but unsparing in its effort to convey the full horror of slaughtering the unborn. So the parents of older teens will have to decide whether the informative value of the story outweighs its disturbing content. Not for the casual moviegoer of any age. Gruesome images of abortion and dismembered fetuses, much medical gore, a mild oath, a few crass expressions, a vague sexual reference. The Catholic News Service classification is A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
R
A Walk to Remember -- A popular and shallow high school senior (Shane West) finds himself unexpectedly falling for a seriously religious classmate (Mandy Moore) who brings out the best in him despite her own personal crisis. Director Adam Shankman's earnest teen romance travels a predictable route but excels in affirming faith values as a positive and joyous part of life. Some sexual references and fleeting crass language. A-II -- adults and adolescents. 2002
PG
Parents need to know that WarGames is a suspense-filled drama that will appeal to older kids, teens, and grownups. While there’s no violent action and the film delivers a sound message, it's a race against time -- nuclear weapons are about to be launched. Young heroes face off against the FBI and the military; war and peace hang in the balance. There's frequent swearing and use of some obscenities, as well as product placement throughout.
(This review is done by Common Sense Media)
PG
Gentle, moving drama about a 10-year-old boy (Jacob Tremblay) born with facial deformities and his struggle to win acceptance from his peers as he transitions from being educated at home to attending the fifth grade of his local middle school. His sympathetic parents (Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson) offer support as does his older sister (Izabela Vidovic), despite the fact that his emotional needs have left her feeling overlooked by Mom and Dad. The attitudes of his fellow students (most prominently Noah Jupe, Bryce Gheisar and Millie Davis) range from open friendliness to cruel hostility with Jupe's character representing a case study in moral subtlety and the negative effects of peer pressure. In adapting R.J. Palacio's best-seller, director and co-writer Stephen Chbosky has created a winning and memorable film about the significance of ordinary life and the lasting impact of everyday choices. Despite a few mature elements, the movie's ethical lessons make it appropriate and valuable fare for most teens. A scene vaguely referencing married sexuality, fleeting scatological material, a couple of fistfights, one use of profanity, a single mildly crass term. The Catholic News Service classification is A-II -- adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG -- parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.