Inspirational media for today's Catholics
Reel Life Journeys is a monthly column about films, faith and family. It is written by Christopher Fenoglio, editor-in-chief of New Catholic Books & Media. This column has been honored by the Catholic Press Association, which awarded it "First Place / Best Regular Column - Culture, the Arts and Leisure" in 2009 and 2010.
For this reel life journey, let’s travel back in time to 1963. In Washington, D.C., President John Kennedy, our nation’s 35th president, walks downstairs from his White House residence and starts his workday in the Oval Office. In Jackson, Mississippi, as portrayed in the movie The Help, black women in neatly ironed blue uniforms ride a city bus down the boulevard to a white neighborhood of fine homes. At their stop, they get off the bus and walk over to the … [Read more...]
It’s been a long journey to normalcy for Harry Potter. Some people work their whole lives to achieve fame and fortune. Harry had it thrust upon him before he was out of his playpen, but it never mattered much to him. All he really wanted was to live in a family of love. As we are reminded in “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2,” in theaters now, Harry was just a small child when his parents were murdered by the evil wizard Voldemort in Godric’s … [Read more...]
My favorite films of all time – the extended editions of the three Lord of the Rings films – were recently shown in the theaters to announce their release in the Blu-ray format. Watching the films on the big screen with dear friends gave me another opportunity to visit Middle-earth and to explore the lives and motivations of the main characters. Each time I watch the films I see, as Boromir tells Aragorn, that “there is weakness, there is frailty, but there is … [Read more...]
“The end is near” is a phrase that’s been around for a long, long time. We heard it most recently from Harold Camping, the 89-year-old civil engineer, self-taught bible sage and owner of the Family Radio Network. Camping’s numerological calculations and extensive study of Scripture led him to predict that the Day of Judgment (also known as the Rapture) was supposed to happen Saturday, May 21, 2011 at 6 pm Eastern daylight time. Earthquakes and other terrible … [Read more...]
Last month I wrote of our Lenten journey and how we should follow the example of Jesus (and the Abbate family) to care for others, even in the darkest times of our lives. Now in the glorious light of the Resurrection on Easter Sunday, I want to tell you about the Hamilton family, specifically their daughter Bethany, whose life is portrayed in the new film Soul Surfer. Bethany discovers that a tragic event she thought was the end of her life was in fact just the … [Read more...]
Just as the Abbate family sat down to dinner one evening, the telephone rang. It was the phone call that all parents fear: their son had been in an automobile accident. The events that followed became the factual basis for a new film in theaters now: The 5th Quarter. The Abbates hurriedly drove to the area of town where a new subdivision was under construction, but were stopped at the entrance by the police. “I need to be with my son in there,” Steven Abbate … [Read more...]
Jesus said to his disciples: “You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one as well. – Matthew 5:38-39 Rooster Cogburn never turned the other cheek. When we watch True Grit and meet Cogburn, the cantankerous one-eye U.S. Marshal portrayed by John Wayne (1969) and Jeff Bridges (2010), it’s easy to imagine that … [Read more...]
I am alone. I walk along a shadowed path, a dark Lenten journey into self-consideration. Night has fallen early; I can barely see the way ahead. I stumble and fall, many times, for I am weak and unsure of my way. Where should I turn? The black forest closes around me, tall trees of sins surround me: mighty redwoods of past transgressions on the left, massive oaks of inaction on the right. Suddenly my feet step onto a metal sidewalk that carries me into the … [Read more...]
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