World News
The case for spiritual confidence
“I’m still learning how to acknowledge and enjoy the wisdom that has grown in my life, the healthy qualities that become more developed every year I live,” writes Vinita Hampton …
Year: 2024
World News
Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time: I am because we are
Scripture for Life: Adam and Eve might be the perfect patron saints for this moment when our church is moving into the second session of the synod on synodality, or, we …
World News
The Catholic storytelling tradition in MJ Lenderman’s new album
While MJ Lenderman uses religious language throughout, this is not an album about spiritual longing, but about storytelling. It is up to the audience to determine if redemption is on …
World News
Saturday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time
Readings for the Optional Memorial of Saint Faustina Kowalska, virgin Reading 1 JB 42:1-3, 5-6, 12-17 Job answered the LORD and said: I know that you can do all things, …
World News
An Elemental misstep: Does Pixar still need — or benefit from — anthropomorphic fantasy?
What if the four elements had feelings? Pixar filmmaker Peter Sohn’s gentle, compassionate storytelling may have something to offer family audiences … if he can break away from what has …
World News
The Lourdes Effect: The Miracle Club director Thaddeus O’Sullivan on Irish trauma and miracles
Laura Linney stars in an Irish comedy set in 1967 about a group of women confronting their past on a pilgrimage to Lourdes. The director talks about the trauma that …
World News
Indiana Jones movies and Raiders of the Lost Ark: Why the original still stands alone
Eight years earlier, The Exorcist offered a gut-wrenching morality tale about, among other things, the spiritual dangers of messing around with Ouija boards and demons. The climax of Raiders offers …
World News
Ethan Hunt’s second act and Tom Cruise’s third: The unending impossible mission
What the Mission: Impossible series discovers in this moment is this: Imperfect stunts can be more thrilling than perfect ones, and an unflappable superman who always knows exactly what to …
World News
Dune and The Lord of the Rings
In my reviews of Dune: Part One and now Dune: Part Two (filed and pending publication; stay tuned!) I’ve written a bit comparing and contrasting Dune with Star Wars. Here …
World News
Dune: Part Two exceeds expectations in every way — except humanity
There’s something bracing about a blockbuster epic in 2024 that doesn’t care what you think of it, that is primarily concerned with being the best possible version of itself.