Lying on the pier and looking at the sky from this perspective gave it a new scale. I feel huge in contrast with the sky, which looks tiny from this angle.
Review: The Friendship Project
Have you ever grabbed a book off the shelf because it had a great title? That was my reaction to this new book by Michele Faehnle and Emily Jaminet, The Friendship Project. The subtitle, The Catholic Woman’s Guide to Making and Keeping Fabulous, Faith-Filled Friends called to me even more.
I’ve never been one to have a huge posse of friends, but I have had close friends in each season of my life. It was only later in life that I discovered the unique joy of having faith-filled friends. What a treasure, truly, to share my faith with a sister-in-Christ.
I loved the format of this book; it explores the virtues and the saints, and points us to these models of holy friendship. I’m left with a renewed commitment to nurturing these relationships that bless me today, to encourage and foster in this season of my life, and more. I love The Friendship Project !
Star Wars: The Last Jedi Trailer #2 Premieres
Are you excited about Star Wars: The Last Jedi? Christmas will come a little early for me, as the film premieres on December 15th! Tonight, we’ll see the premiere of the second trailer during half-time of Monday Night Football’s match-up between the Minnesota Vikings and the Chicago Bears.
I’ll be watching. There was a time when I was a big fan of the Purple Gang, probably because I had a crush on Donny Osmond and his favorite color was purple. Eventually, though, I had a bigger crush on Han Solo. And an even bigger fascination with the Star Wars saga. It was inevitable that I would write about characters that have influenced me or moved me in some way. So much so, that I feature Rey, the heroine of these last films, in Super Girls and Halos.
Stars Wars’ appeal to me, after the cool special effects, is in the story-telling. I love to see the epic battle of Good vs. Evil play out on the big screen. Although Lucas was often criticized for bad dialogue — as a kid I never noticed. As an adult, I didn’t care — the story is greater than a few cheesy lines here and there.
In The Force Awakens, we meet Rey and are treated to an update on our favorite characters from the first trilogy. I immediately loved Rey. She was fearless and daring, everything exciting about a heroine. Rey’s sense of justice prevails, and she is drawn into the Resistance to fight the evil of the First Order.
The enduring theme of the Star Wars films is the triumph of good over evil, the eternal battle of the light versus the dark sides of the Force on a galactic scale. The films also explore this theme on the smaller though no less epic scale of the individual human person. As Christians, we’re reminded that we must act, whether singly or in concert with others, according to God’s plan for salvation in our lives. (Super Girls and Halos p. 32)
Rey represents, for me, the ultimate fictional heroine. Her commitment to justice in the galaxy drives her in The Force Awakens, and I have great hope for how she will use The Force in The Last Jedi through her training, and ultimately, in the battle against the evil in the First Order.
In Super Girls and Halos, I share my love of the saints and how they are excellent models of virtue. The Saints lived lives of heroic virtue, too. I pair Rey with St. Clare of Assisi as a beacon of strength and light, as I discuss the same virtue of justice in a canonized saint and heroine in her own right.
Check back here to see the new trailer.