Kirjahaku

Martin Sheen, best known for his role as a Catholic president in the prestigious television series The West Wing, returned to the practice of his Catholic faith at the age of forty after decades away. After years of battling alcohol addiction, a near-fatal heart attack, and a nervous breakdown, the stage, film, and television actor renewed his dedication to his family and activated his faith with energy, grace, and joy. Through the sacraments, Mass, the rosary, the support of family, and numerous friends and peace and justice activists such as Daniel Berrigan, SJ, and the Catholic Worker Movement, Martin Sheen today sees himself as a man in the pew. He has been arrested more than sixty times for non-violent civil disobedience, speaking out for human rights. Sister Rose Pacatte's unique biography moves beyond tabloid news to include information and inspiring stories gleaned from interviews with Martin Sheen, his sister and brothers, as well as long-time friends. People of God is a series of inspiring biographies for the general reader. Each volume offers a compelling and honest narrative of the life of an important twentieth or twenty-first century Catholic. Some living and some now deceased, each of these women and men has known challenges and weaknesses familiar to most of us but responded to them in ways that call us to our own forms of heroism. Each offers a credible and concrete witness of faith, hope, and love to people of our own day.

Corita Kent, an American nun and pop artist, led a life of creativity and love that took her in unexpected directions. In this engaging portrait, Sr. Rose Pacatte, FSP, offers an in-depth look at Corita Kent, gentle revolutionary of the heart, letting the beauty and truth of her life and art speak for itself.Frances Elizabeth Kent’s rise to fame coincided with some of the most socially volatile years of the twentieth century. As Sr. Mary Corita of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters, she became a nationally-respected artist—though the Archbishop of her home city of Los Angeles regarded her work as blasphemous. Seeing no contradiction between the sacred and the secular, Corita designed the US Postal Service’s iconic “Love” stamp and created the largest copyrighted work of art in the world, on a gas tank for the Boston Gas Company. These examples and more exemplify the theology and point of view of one of the twentieth century’s most famous and fascinating artists.

"The Way: A Cinematic Retreat Guide" is ideal for Lent or Ordinary Time and appropriate for ages 16+. The guide, that began as a handout, takes its inspiration from Emilio Estevez' 2011 film "The Way" about Tom, an eye doctor with poor inner vision, who walks the ancient pilgrimage route, the Camino de Santiago de Compostela in Spain, carrying his beloved son's ashes. Tom learns to see things in a new way and makes new friends along the way. At the end of the Camino, Tom is a new man. The guide is divided into five stages or sessions for the first five weeks of Lent but a creative retreat leader can adapt the material or use the guide in whole or in part, such as a three-day evening retreat. There are also activities and questions for reflection and conversation. The "Check List" in the guide includes items for a pilgrimage backpack the leader can give at at appropriate moments that enhance the retreat experience, such as a rosary, stone, shell, holy water bottle, New Testament, etc. This guide includes catechetical templates to use as is or to prepare your own handouts for talking about "pilgrimage" to children and youth, as well as a Youth Pilgrimage Activity for teens. The goal of "The Way: A Cinematic Retreat Guide" is for participants to experience the transcendence of film in their own spiritual lives and those with whom they share faith and humanity, to see more clearly and to love more deeply. After all, the famous French Catholic film Critic Andr Bazin (1918-1958) once wrote: "The cinema has always been interested in God."