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NUNS ARE COOL! | Sr. Theresa Aletheia Noble edition.

[callout]This post is part of a monthly series called PRIESTS & NUNS ARE COOL! in which I interview a priest or a nun about his or her vocation — and about how adults who haven’t discerned a vocation yet can discover their own. This edition features Sr. Theresa, a Daughter of St. Paul who lives in Miami.[/callout]

biopicSr. Theresa Aletheia Noble, who professed her first vows as a Daughter of St. Paul earlier this year, used to be an atheist.

Now, she is author of the book The Prodigal You Love: Inviting Loved Ones Back to the Church, a guide for Catholics who have loved ones who have left the Church and an interest in inviting them back. Sr. Theresa spends time talking to parish groups about the book and helping people apply what she wrote in it.

She describes her life as apostolic and contemplative, busy but peaceful. She lives in a convent in Miami, evangelizes in a Paulinas bookcenter, drinks café cubano, bakes bread, and blogs. She is gracious to discuss her vocation for this series, and to tell us how an adult who doesn’t know his or hers yet might discover it: Continue reading “NUNS ARE COOL! | Sr. Theresa Aletheia Noble edition.”

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A kick in the pants for people who stink at praying.

god-help-me-how-grow-in-prayer-jim-beckman-paperback-cover-artI AM THE WORST AT PRAYING. I typed that confession, mildly hyperbolic and wholly rooted in frustration with my apparent commitment to distraction, while I half-watched the Olympics on a giant flat-screen TV.

I do not need to watch the men’s slalom more than I need to sit with Jesus, but I picked it (and even for a distraction, showed up with divided attention).

Then I thought of God, Help Me: How to Grow in Prayer – the book my friend and fellow blogger Edmund Mitchell recommended in a post he wrote about it awhile ago. I bought it the day I read what Edmund wrote. I read most of it shortly after.

Then grad school got hard until graduation. Then I wrote a book. Then I wanted to hibernate.

But I stood. I stepped away from the slalom. I searched my room for the book. I found it, buried beneath others, and finished it. The book, by Jim Beckman, who works as faculty at the Augustine Institute, is simultaneously a swift kick in the pants and an empathetic hug for whoever is “the worst at praying.” Continue reading “A kick in the pants for people who stink at praying.”

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Arleen the virgin gets a book, ‘#JaneTheVirgin’ gets a show.

jane the virginFrom where I stood, the banner blocked the American flag that hung at the center of Citrus Park Mall in Tampa. It showcased ‘Jane the Virgin,’ the latest in an influx of TV shows inspired by sexual inexperience. It would premier, the banner said, on Oct. 13.

First, I asked what any virgin beneath that banner would: “WHERE’S MY BANNER?” Then, I marked my calendar.

The show, about a a virgin who — as a result of a doctor’s distraction — got artificially inseminated when she should have gotten a Pap smear, premiered as promised on Monday, and (spoilers to follow), I watched it. Here’s how I sum it up: Continue reading “Arleen the virgin gets a book, ‘#JaneTheVirgin’ gets a show.”

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PRIESTS ARE COOL! | Fr. Victor Amorose edition.

[callout]This post is part of a monthly series called PRIESTS & NUNS ARE COOL! in which I interview a priest or a nun about his or her vocation — and about how adults who haven’t discerned a vocation yet can discover their own. This edition features Fr. Victor, a parochial vicar at Nativity Catholic Church in Brandon, Fla.[/callout]

It’s worth noting that the first time I met Fr. Victor IRL was while we crossed paths at a Christian music fest at Disney’s Magic Kingdom. I said hi as he passed by, but I didn’t discover until later that he — who I saw not far from Space Mountain — is totally a priest I follow on Twitter!

Fr. Victor — who enjoys playing guitar, bass, piano and a bunch of other random stringed instruments and listening to music, watching movies, playing video games, and anything and everything related to baseball (especially the Tampa Bay Rays) — is gracious to discuss his vocation for this series, and to tell us how an adult who doesn’t know his or hers yet might discover it: Continue reading “PRIESTS ARE COOL! | Fr. Victor Amorose edition.”

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The Song | A Movie Review

In forthcoming film The Song, on a stage in front of an un-enthused crowd at a bar too quiet for comfort, musician Jed King (Alan Powell) leaned toward the mic and sang a line that can’t not affect a good listener: “Love is a choice worth making.”

The life Jed didn’t yet know he would lead would put the line he sang into perspective. But that night, Jed — then young and single — sat offstage after the show, across from a manager who had no work to offer other than a gig a half hour from home at a fall festival hosted by a vineyard.

He met her there — “the most beautiful girl in the world,” he said in a song he made up as he went along, whose ex-boyfriend broke up with her “for the dumbest reason in the world” (she wouldn’t sleep with him).

She was Rose (Ali Faulkner), the vineyard owner’s daughter whose prudence inspired Jed’s. They dated, with the vineyard owner’s permission — it was Jed’s idea to ask him, not Rose’s — and decided, upon Jed’s proposal, to get married. Continue reading “The Song | A Movie Review”