godiscallingyou

A New Exorcist Movie

A new movie about an exorcist is set to be released in major movie theaters on January 28 titled The Rite. The movie starts none other than Anthony Hopkins. The movie is loosely based on a book by the same title authored by Matt Baglio about a California priest, Fr. Gary Thomas, who goes to Rome to be trained as an exorcist. Fr. Thomas was called upon to help with certain scenes in the movie and he even said the movie was very good and that it was a movie about faith! Read more of this thoughts about the movie from Catholic News Agency. As always with Hollywood productions there are some elements in movies based on true events that are exaggerated for effect - read more on that from Catholic News Service. You can see a trailer below.

 

Pope's New Book

 
Pope Benedict's new book is set to be released on March 15. This book is the second volume of the Jesus of Nazareth series and will cover the period of Our Lord's life from his entry into Jerusalem to his Resurrection. The first volume went from Our Lord's Baptism to His Transfiguration and sold many copies. Rear more about volume 2 here!

The Greatest of Men

 
George Weigel wrote the definitive biography of Pope John Paul II, Witness to Hope. That book was published in 1999, some 6 years before his death. Weigel recently finished his masterpiece on John Paul II titled The End and the Beginning. Truly a great read about a man who transformed history, the Church and the world. Fr. James V. Schall, S.J., publsihed some positive words about the book and the greatest of men - Pope John Paul II. Read his thoughts from Ignatius Insight.

George W. Bush and Pope John Paul II

 
Former president George W. Bush recently penned a memoir that is set to be released soon about his time as president of the United States. Presidnet Bush mentions Pope John Paul II and his concept of the culture of life and how that iinfluenced the former president in some of his decisions. Read more about how JPII factors into this book from Catholic News Agency.

Cardinal Van Thuan of Vietnam

The Church is beginning to collect info on the sancity of Cardinal Van Thuan of Vietnam to see if he might one day be declared a saint. He spent 13 years in prision for his Catholic faith under a communist regime. Take a look at the video below about his heroic life. First came across this vidoe from the Anchoress blog on the First Things site.  

He wrote some great books like Testimony of Hope and Five Loaves and Two Fish.

The Pope, US Bishops and Facebook

 

What do Pope Benedict, the US Bishops and facebook have in common? Quite a bit from Oct. 11-15. That is the week the US Bishops are sponsoring Pope Culture Week on their facebook page. On each day that week the US Bishops will post a question about the life and teaching of Pope Benedict on thier facebook page and the first person to answer correctly will win a book - sounds pretty good! Take a look at the News Release from US Bishops.

New Mass Translation

 
Its looks like the new English translation of the Mass is going to be officially used throughout the entire United States on the 1st Sunday of Advent 2011 - a great opportunity for the American Church! As an aid in discovering the richness of this new translation Jeffrey Pinyan, a member of St. Hedwig's Parish, wrote a book titled Praying the Mass: The Prayers of the People: A guide to the New English Translation of the Mass. It provides context and perspective as to why the new English translation has returned to a more literal, and Scriptural, translation of the original Latin text. Read more about his book from TrentonMonitor. You can purchase the book at Jeffrey's site.

Zenit recently posted some thoughts by Cardinal Francis George about the new English translation - take a look here.

Scott Hahn

Dr. Scott Hahn, biblical theologian at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, recently published a book on the priesthood titled Many Are Called: Rediscovering the Glory of the Priesthood. Dr. Hahn always provides biblical and theological concepts in a easy to understand format - this book is certainly no exception! You can purchase the book from Amazon here. 

Exorcisms

Fr. Thomas Euteneuer of Human Life International recently published a book titled “Exorcism and the Church Militant." In the book he lays out the ecclesial understanding and perspective on exorcisms in the life of the Church today. Fr. Euteneuer believes that the Church in the near future will be inundated with exorcisms due to the fact that young people have opened themselves up to the occult in such large numbers and this will have deep ramifications for their spiritual lives. Fr. Euteneuer believes this book is especially important for priests to read since they will have to deal with these issues in a much greater way. Read more about the book from Catholic News Agency - buy the book here.

Year for Priests Closes

As the Year for Priests closes Headline Bistro ran a story by Pia de Solenni to reflect on this year. Pia spoke about the difficulties the priesthood has gone through this past year and also how priests have been portrayed in past from a book about Edmund Campion to movies like The Mission - take a look at the article.

On the Vatican's website you can read the homilies, talks, see pics and a whole bunch of other things from this Year for Priests - take a look here.

Tomorrow, the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, will mark the official close to the Year for Priests and when St. Jean Vianney will be declared patron saint of all priests. A truly historical and important moment in the life of the Church and in the life of all priests - read more about this from Catholic News Agency. At this closing Mass the Pope will address all priests throughout the world - stay tuned it should be encouraging and convicting!

EWTN will be broadcasting some of these events - take a look at their webpage.