Book Review: "Rufus and Ryan Go to Church" by Kathleen Long Bostrom

 
Ryan is a little boy who likes to take his monkey Rufus everywhere with him.  This story is about going to Church. For a short children's story, it certainly hits the important points:

• How to dress for Church
• How to behave in Church
• What we do in Church
• How the Church is a community

An entertaining and informative book for small children 

 

http://www.idealsbooks.com/

Book Review: Small Steps for Catholic Moms

Small Steps for Catholic Moms: Your Daily Call to Think, Pray,and Act

by Danielle Bean and Elizabeth Foss
Notre Dame: Ave Maria Press, 2013

The hugely successful Small Steps for Catholic Moms: Your Daily Call to Think, Pray, and Act by Danielle Bean and Elizabeth Foss was originally published in 2010, but fell victim to a publisher closure and went out of print. Ave Maria Press has re-released this popular book as part of the CatholicMom.com series of books. 

It is an understatement to say that Danielle Bean, editor of Catholic Digest and host of The Gist as well as mother of eight children, and Elizabeth Foss, award-winning writer and mother of nine, know what it means to be busy moms. The duo has put together a devotional to help mothers easily work prayer into a hectic life. 

Small Steps for Catholic Moms offers an entry for each day, but Bean and Foss are adamant that there is no one “right way” to use this book. One may follow along day by day or pick it up when the need for inspiration arises and study a few pages. Each month is dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue, such as joy, simplicity, courage, humility, and peace. Each day features something to think about, pray about, and act on. Quotes from scripture and the saints offer the day’s food for thought. The prayers are simple, yet profound, and the actions are practical ways to live out one’s faith. 

Any Catholic mother searching for a quick spiritual pick-me-up will find great value in the pages of Small Steps for Catholic Moms.

Book Review: Sisterhood of Saints

Sisterhood of Saints: Daily Guidance and Inspiration
by Melanie Rigney
Cincinatti, OH: Franciscan Media, 2013

Are you in need of some daily inspiration? Do you love to learn about the saints? If you answered “yes” to either of those questions, then Sisterhood of Saints by Melanie Rigney (Franciscan Media, 2013) is a book you will want to keep close by. 

Rigney writes that researching all these women changed her life. She marvels at the similarities and differences in this select group of holy women. “They weren’t perfect. . . Sometimes they hurt people, badly. They were outcasts sometimes as well. . . They helped people who had given up on themselves, people who had never heard of God or had little use for him if they had. . . Some of them were really ordinary. . . [Others] crossed battle lines or offered up their lives in wartime. . . Others died safely in their beds. In short, they are women just like you and me.”

For each day of the year, Rigney offers a short biography of the featured saint, a quote of inspiration from either the Scriptures or the saint, and a challenge to help you live your spiritual life more deeply.

Rigney has highlighted the big-name women saints. Those looking for Mary, Therese, Elizabeth, Brigid, Catherine, Kateri, etcetera will not be disappointed, but one is especially impressed by the number of lesser-known saints who are featured in these pages. The reader will have the opportunity to make many new heavenly friends, such as Rita Amada de Jesus, Anna Wang, Giuseppina Gabriella Bonino, and Celine Borzecka. There is a saint in heaven for every woman to relate to and seek help from.

The Sisterhood of Saints would make a wonderful gift for the Catholic women in your life. It is also a wonderful resource for oneself, to deepen one’s faith and learn more about the communion of saints.

Music Review: "Mater Eucharistiae" by Dominican Sisters of Mary Mother of the Eucharist

After the beautiful "Angels and Saints at Ephesus", I couldn't wait to review "Mater Eucharistiae"... and it certainly lives up to the quality and beauty of the Sisters' earlier CD's.

  The hymns truly epitomize the CD title...they focus on Mary and/or the Eucharist.  They bring the listener closer to the Lord.  

Most of it is in Latin, and there are a couple of English hymns.  

Their singing is as beautiful as ever, but this CD stands out for me...it is the most prayer-like of their CD's, yet it delivers the crystal-like quality we've come to expect from the Sisters.  

Many of the hymns were either new or unfamiliar,  but there were a couple of classics like "Te Deum", "Adoro Te" and "Salve Regina".

A beautiful CD!

 

Movie Review: Paranoia - PG13

Harrison Ford and Gary Oldman are two billionaires at war  in the tech industry.

 Iam Hemsworth is Adam Cassidy, who gets caught in the middle of their feud. At first, Adam thinks he has come upon a great opportunity, but he soon finds that he is simply a pawn in their feud.  

There are  a few well-known names such as Ford, Oldman and Richard Dreyfus.  

The story is well written, with a few twists to keep you guessing.  

Adam has to make several choices along the way about loyalty and priorities.  

A real thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat  

Content warning: 1 brief bed scene (no nudity)  
 

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/paranoia-2013/

Book Review: Strange Gods

The First Commandment is probably the one of the ten that we worry about the least. “I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods before me.” After all, most of us haven’t spent time worshipping any of the Roman or Egyptian gods recently or paid homage to any pagan spirits. In Strange Gods: Unmasking the Idols in Everyday Life, Elizabeth Scalia, also known by her internet moniker “The Anchoress,” invites us to take a closer look at this long-neglected commandment and discover the ways we practicing Christians violate it on a daily basis. 

Scalia asks, “Do we stop to think of what it means to have something ‘before God?’ It means to put something ‘first,’ yes, but more fundamentally, it means to put something ‘in front’ of God . . . What is before God, then, is also before us; it stands between God and us; it separates us from him.”

We humans are rather self-interested creatures. We want to be noticed, to be “loved and valued.” We often want the world to revolve around us. In establishing the Ten Commandments, God understood our weakness. He provides the commandments to keep us in right relationship with both Him and others. He “gives commandments meant to save us from ourselves.”

Scalia makes the case that the First Commandment, “if obeyed, renders all of the others quite nearly moot . . . Look at me [God}, and let me love you, and you will have no need of the rest.” Scalia then explores the various idols in our everyday life. These include ourselves, ideas, prosperity, technology, coolness and sex, plans, and the causes we feel passionate about. We can even give in to idolatry when we become too focused on the one “correct” way to do liturgy or pray. In short, “nothing human is exempt from becoming an idol we will place before God.” We must always be vigilant. 

A mere human like the rest of us, Scalia is the first to acknowledge that she suffers from idolatry as much as anyone. With a profound sense of irony, she shares how even the writing of this particular book became an idol. 

After reading Strange Gods, one will never be able to look at the First Commandment in the same way. Scalia has written a thought-provoking tome that should be read by every Christian seeking to follow God’s laws.

Movie Review: The Wolverine - PG13

The Wolverine heads to Japan to say his goodbyes to an old friend who is very ill.  

Not only does the Wolverine have to battle several enemies while in Japan, but he is put at a disadvantage while doing so.

 One theme that is woven throughout the story is the issue of mortality and immortality.  

Hugh Jackman is very good in the role of the Wolverine.

  There is lots of action, and the story is well-written.  I enjoyed the dialogue,  and the way the  characters interact.

  There are a couple of excellent twists at the end that keep the story intriguing.

  Content warnings are violence, some gore and a 'morning after' type scene  (no nudity or sex scenes).

See it...you'll enjoy it.
 

http://www.thewolverinemovie.com/

Big-Hearted: Inspiring Stories from Everyday Families

Big-Hearted: Inspiring Stories from Everyday Families

by Patti Maguire Armstrong and Theresa Thomas

New Rochelle, NY: Scepter Publishers, 2013

Patti Maguire Armstrong and Theresa Thomas, who previously paired up to write and compile the wonderful “Stories for the Homeschool Heart,” have now come together to create “Big-Hearted: Inspiring Stories from Everyday Families.”  

What makes a family big-hearted? It is a spirit of generosity with a focus on putting God first. “The families in this book [share] the goal of striving to put God first, of trying to love well.” The authors encourage those who want to have big-hearted families to “sacrifice much. Choose God’s will. Love profusely. Be big-hearted. And then see how our almighty God, who is the same now as always, blesses you again and again.”

Armstrong and Thomas share their own experiences of being part of big-hearted families growing up and then creating their own version of such a family once they married and began to have children. This is not a two women project, however. Many other voices weigh in and share powerful, and sometimes difficult stories, of the struggle to love generously and be open to life. 

Thomas Mahala shares his story of fearing having a child with Down Syndrome. When his 8^th child and first daughter after seven sons was born with an extra chromosome, he struggled to love her, but with time and God’s grace, that love came. Calvin Bader shares he and his wife’s struggle with infertility and how they became foster and adoptive parents. DeeAnn Smith writes of her struggles with alcoholism and what it meant to have the unconditional love of her children as she worked to get well. Jeffery Gross highlights the life of his son who was born with cystic fibrosis and who also suffered from muscular dystrophy. Sherry Antonetti focuses on the adventure of taking a trip with ten children. 

Light-hearted stories balance heart-wrenching ones, but each of the families featured in the pages of “Big-Hearted” have something to teach all of us about the power of love and the importance of putting God first in our family life.

Movie Review: The Lone Ranger - PG13

Many of us know the story of the Lone Ranger and Tonto...as a kid, I enjoyed Clayton Moore's Lone Ranger.  This version provides the history of the Lone Ranger and his association with Tonto.  

During most of the story, I was concerned with Armie Hammer's Lone Ranger being too weak, but he eventually realizes the necessity of achieving justice.  

There is plenty of action, some of it pretty implausible.  The last 20 or 30 minutes has too much destruction...it distracts from the story.

  I expected Johnny Depp's Tonto to outshine Armie Hammer's Lone Ranger, but they were careful to not to bury the character of the Lone Ranger...they kept him the main focus of the story.  

Content warning: the outlaw they are pursuing is a cannibal, and that is insinuated in one scene.   

Overall, a pretty entertaining version of the Lone Ranger story.

http://disney.go.com/the-lone-ranger/

Movie Review: White House Down - PG13

John Cale (Channing Tatum) was turned down after his interview with the Secret Service, and doesn't know how to break the news to his daughter, who is also on a White House tour with him when a mercenary group takes over the White House.   Because he is there and caught in the middle, it is now up to Cale to rescue  both his daughter and President Sawyer (Jamie Foxx).  

The story is pretty well written, with a couple of unexpected twists making it more than just an action movie.  

The last 20 or 30 minutes puts a somewhat negative end to it, with too many explosions and a very implausible scene with someone waving off an Air Force mission by waving a flag.

 It was pretty entertaining for an action movie, but the ending could have been better. 
 

http://www.whitehousedown.com/