Category: courageous saints

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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)

Super GirlsRey 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.

 

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I have this book, y’all!

Super Girls

It’s true! I have this book that comes out in just a few days, on the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary! I’m so excited to share Super Girls and Halos: My Companions on the Quest for Truth, Justice, and Heroic Virtue with you.

Fun for me!

It was a fun book to write, something that I’d always wanted to do — examine the lives of some of the heroines of popular culture that I had come to admire, and even emulate at times in my life. My growing faith helped me see some other things in these exciting characters, what Bishop Robert Barron calls the “seeds of the gospel.” These heroic women have human virtues that are good, but the more I thought about it, the more I saw how the lives of saints were also exciting and interesting, and certainly worth emulating.

I bring it all together in this book that explores fictional heroines, real saints, the cardinal virtues, and Our Lady of Guadalupe!

I had a lot of fun doing the research for the book, which was pretty much getting to binge-watch my favorite movies and then talk about them, and then repeat the process with some saints that I think you will love to know more about. Isn’t that a fan’s dream?

Fun for you!

I had so much fun, I want to share it with you. To celebrate the launch of Super Girls and Halos on September 8th, I’m giving away a Wonder Woman plush doll since the very first chapter is about Wonder Woman!

I’m also joining the Nerdy Catholic Tees guys with some truth on a silk screen about the Blessed Mother being the Original Wonder Woman!

Post a picture of yourself anywhere on social media holding a copy of Super Girls and Halos with #SuperGirlsandHalos and you’ll be entered to win the Wonder Woman plush doll. Add #ShowYourNerdySide and you’ll be entered to win The Original Wonder Woman t-shirt courtesy of NerdyCatholicTees.com. Check out the Nerdy Guys at NerdyCatholicTees.com for a chance to win a signed copy of my book!

What’s Coming Up?

Follow me on social media. I’ll be posting links to interviews and reviews about Super Girls and Halos, and I’ll be posting and sharing your pictures, too!*

Enjoy the book! Enjoy the fun! And spread the word!

*Contest ends September 21, 2017. Winners will be announced on September 22, 2017.

 

 

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St. Clare of Assisi

Fresco at church of San Damiano, Assisi

I was born in Santa Clara, a city named after St. Clare of Assisi, and baptized in a Franciscan parish. I have great uncles who were Franciscan friars, and a grandmother who was a Third Order Franciscan. Despite this, my interest in the Franciscans never extended past perpetuating the image of St. Francis as Snow White in the garden, surrounded by the little birds and woodland creatures. I am sure that somewhere in my dozen or so years of blogging I have misquoted St. Francis, perpetuating the myth of this (in)famous quotation so often misattributed to him,

Preach the Gospel at all times. Use words if necessary.

That encompassed my entire knowledge of St. Francis of Assisi, and I knew even less about St. Clare of Assisi. It illustrates the rather tepid relationships I’ve had with the Saints throughout my life, and the gentle awakening I’ve had in the last several years that has drawn me into the stories of these holy men and women. The Saints, I must admit, have been extending their hands in friendship for years, and only now am I responding. Better late than never is no real consolation, but writing one book about the saints in my life, and then writing a second one, Super Girls and Halos, that features St. Clare of Assisi, has opened my eyes and my heart to these powerful stories of conversion, faith, and commitment to the Lord.

Behind the accounts of incredible miracles and dramatic martyrdoms exist lives of heroic virtue. This kind of heroism doesn’t require superpowers such as flying or crushing mountains. Instead, it is a quiet strength that trusts in God, and abandons all to his holy will.

In Super Girls and Halos I explore the over-the-top heroics of fictional women, such as Rey from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and explore the virtues in these women. I examine Rey’s character, and acknowledge that her strength and desire for justice in the galaxy are worthy of emulation. And then I examine the same virtue in a Saint, recognizing how grace works through her. Where Rey becomes a ray of light in her fictional universe, I discovered Clare, who was truly such a light in her life.

My favorite account of St. Clare’s trust in the Lord is recorded in the traditional image of her holding a monstrance. In the year 1240, the convent at San Damiano in Assisi and the neighboring village were under attack by Saracen mercenaries. St. Clare, ailing and sick, went to the wall of the convent holding the Blessed Sacrament, beseeching the Lord to protect them. The Saracens retreated, and the sisters and the village were spared that night.

Dear Saint Clare, pray for us, that we may shine the Light of Christ in our corner of the world.

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