FILMS AND BOOKS

It’s about German migrants braving the new world and the unknown, building families, communities, and Church, and leaving a legacy to inspire us all.

"This Is Us" is strictly for adults however.

Christmas is upon us once again and we drift from the embrace of day-to-day living to the morass of consumerism and the occasional religious expression. After all, Christ is revealed upon the world and stories of Christmas ghosts, spirits of revelry, and visions of sugar plums dance in our heads.

This Advent, journey to modern-day Bethlehem via film and post-discussion with the filmmaker. One night only: Dec. 16.

Joyce Coronel has never been to Iraq or Syria, but you couldn’t tell by reading her latest book, “Cry of Nineveh.” Coronel, a longtime reporter for The Catholic Sun, just published her second novel based on the persecution of Christians in the Middle East.

NEW YORK (CNS) — In the Gospel of John, Jesus tells his disciples, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

I know, as Catholics, we like spiritual self-help books, saint biographies, devotional and even fiction works. Of the books I’ve reviewed, some were so good that I labeled them “The Book.” In the case of Kenneth Woodward’s new book, “Getting Religion: Faith, Culture, and Politics from the Age of Eisenhower to the Era of Obama,” it’s true, this is THE Book.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Defending religious freedom, fighting indifference to attacks on human dignity and promoting care of creation are obligations that Orthodox and Catholics share and areas where Pope Francis said he and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople are in deep harmony.

We can still remember the photos and the videos of a woman without fear who went into the poorest places of the poorest and lifted the most downtrodden to a place of dignity.

Pair of books remind parents of their primary role as their child's educator and remind them that any hope of having children living the faith must be preceded by parents who are fully engaged in living the faith.