Film and Book Reviews

Each author takes a different entry point to the same mystery: God entering our world, our time, our personal lives, for the sake of each of us. Which book will you choose this Advent?

Cheryl Hughes shows us that although he died over forty-five years ago, Fulton Sheen remains a relevant model for living out the Catholic faith and sharing it with others in the modern world. The book displays why Sheen was someone who captivated the attention of others, often reaching more non-Catholics than Catholics.

I was hooked from the get-go. I read it during lunch breaks, over dinner, after walking the dog, while waiting for the girls to get ready for brunch. I carried it from room to room, tucked it into my purse—always looking for a spare moment to squeeze in one more chapter.

Directed by Sean McNamara (Soul Surfer, Reagan), Soul on Fire tells the miraculous true story of John O’Leary, who was just nine years old when a gasoline explosion left him with burns covering 100% of his body. His chances of survival were slim to none, but through the love of his family, the support of his community, some good old-fashioned St. Louis Cardinals baseball, and his own will to live, John beat the odds and survived.

by Marge Hynes, Writer

The rain outside my apartment wasn’t polite, misty rain. It was the kind that hurls itself at your windows. Fitting, really, for the moment I pressed play on Triumph of the Heart. Within minutes, I knew this wasn’t a film you could half-watch. It demanded stillness.