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Religious Life-themed Books And Movies


FiereMargriet

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FiereMargriet

So today I was watching [i]The Nun's Story[/i] and I started mentally listing the books and movies with a plot or theme related to the religious life. Here are a few of my favorites, in no particular order:

Movies:
The Sound of Music
The Nun's Story
Therese (2004)
What I've seen of Sister Act... :) I watched it at a very conflicted stage of my life, and I think it probably pointed me in the right direction.

Books:
The Tulip and the Pope by Deborah Larsen--I wouldn't recommend it theologically, as obviously the author left the convent partly because she disagreed with Catholic teachings, but it is such a good look inside convent life and very similar to [i]The Nun's Story[/i], which Larsen was inspired by.
Mother Angelica's biography by Raymond Arroyo
Treasure in Clay: The Autobiography of Fulton J. Sheen
This book is about vocation discernment in general, but Mary of Nazareth by Frederico Suarez is just beautiful!

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InHisLove726

Oh! Cool topic! ;)

My favorite movies would have to be:

Therese (2004 version)
Sound of Music
Sister Act (the first only, the second was boring)

In the way of books, I loved:

Story of a Soul
A Right to be Merry
The Interior Castle

I still am trying to read St. Faustina's diary, but I find it difficult sometimes because she didn't write that easily. I remember reading that PJP2 had difficulty reading it and ordered a second translation because it was rather illegible.

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CatherineM

The Trouble with Angels-Really showed the personal side of sisters, especially when one died, and how the girls decided whether to enter or not.

Where Angels Go Trouble Follows-Campy sequel to above, but had one important message about teaching nuns, about how they can be friends or mother figures but not both.

Shoes of the Fisherman-I loved how it showed behind the scenes of electing a Pope.

Song of Bernadette

Bells of St. Mary

Lilies of the Field

Sound of Music

Agnes of God

Nuns on the Run

Heaven Help Us

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[u][/u]In This House of Brede[u][/u] by Rumer Godden. There is a video of this as well, but the novel is WAY better.

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kavalamyself

IN ORDER....
The Right to be Merry
A Few Lines To Tell You
My Beloved
Bernie Becomes a Nun
In This House of Brede
Nun's Story
Nun: A Memoir
Cloister Talks
Vocation in Black and White
Mother Benedict
Voices of Silence
Amata Means Beloved
Cloister Walk

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Favourite movies:
- Mother Teresa of Calcutta
- Father Damian
- The man who becames a pope
- Thérèse
- The mission
- Teresa de los Andes
- Into great silence :D

Books:
- Teresia of Avila
- Thérèse - my life
- St. John of the Cross
- Mother Maria Teresia Taucher Karmel DCJ

Edited by Muus
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Movies:
[i]On the Waterfront [/i]great priest to his parish

[i]Monsieur Vincent[/i] Outstanding film, life of St. Vincent de Paul

[i]The Diary of a Country Priest [/i]a much better and real vision of priesthood than Bing Crosby's Fr. O'Malley

[i]The Keys of the Kingdom[/i], Excellent film about a missionary priest

Novels:

[i]Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy [/i]by Rumer Goden, a story of Dominican nuns

[i]In this House of Brede [/i]by Rumer Goden, story of Benedictine Nuns

[i]Cosmas or the Love of God[/i] by Pierre de Calan, discernment novel

[i]The Diary of a Country Priest [/i]by Georges Bernanos film version also

[i]Keys of the Kingdom [/i]by A. J. Cronin, story of a missionary priest in China

[i]The Edge of Sadness[/i] by Edwin O'Connor, story of a priest who is a recovering alcoholic, winner of Pulitzer Prize for fiction

[i]The Power and the Glory [/i]by Graham Greene, story of a fallen priest with faith, outstanding



Many of these books are availible from Loyola Classics
[url="http://loyolaclassics.loyolapress.com/"]Loyola Classics[/url]

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TeresaBenedicta

There's a movie on St. John Bosco which is very moving and I thought showed the work of a parish and, in some senses, a missionary priest as well.

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laetitia crucis
:banana: :taco: :banana:

Movies:

The Keys to the Kingdom :love:

Padre Pio: Miracle Man

Mission to Love: St. John Bosco

Karol: The Man Who Became Pope

The Trouble with Angels

Mother Teresa (starring Olivia Hussey)


Books:

[i]True Devotion to Jesus Through Mary[/i] (St. Louis Marie Gringion de Montfort) -- this book changed my life.

[i]A Right to be Merry[/i] :love:

[i]Divine Mercy in My Soul[/i] (St. Faustina's Diary)

[i]Story of a Soul[/i] -- the first time I read this I didn't like it AT ALL; I found it "too flowery" (no pun intended! :lol: ) and almost "romantic" so to say, but the second time reading it... wow.. I was a goner for the St. Therese bandwagon.

[i]The Ascent to Mt. Carmel[/i]


----

Has anyone seen "Padre Pio: Between Heaven and Hell"? I hoping to see that one sometime. Or some of the more recent St. Francis and St. Clare movies? (Italian -- I think they're made by the same company that did "Padre Pio: Miracle Man" and the Don Bosco movie... :think: )
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  • 2 months later...

I wanted to recommend a book called Clare and Her Sisters: Lovers of the Poor Christ, by Madeline Pecora Nugent, especially for anyone interested in Franciscans... but I think anyone would benefit from it.

It's a very good book about St. Clare and the other original Poor Clares... very factual, and biographical, but written as a novel, and just very, very good. She sticks to what we know about Clare's life, but makes up dialogue and things to fill in the gaps. It's so cool to learn about the other sisters that were with her... they were all such beautiful women... and how they interacted with each other, and also it portrays beautifully the relationship that they had with Holy Father Francis, and how much they meant to him...

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Thomist-in-Training

[quote name='zunshynn' post='1943961' date='Aug 9 2009, 12:37 AM']I wanted to recommend a book called Clare and Her Sisters: Lovers of the Poor Christ, by Madeline Pecora Nugent, especially for anyone interested in Franciscans... but I think anyone would benefit from it.

It's a very good book about St. Clare and the other original Poor Clares... very factual, and biographical, but written as a novel, and just very, very good. She sticks to what we know about Clare's life, but makes up dialogue and things to fill in the gaps. It's so cool to learn about the other sisters that were with her... they were all such beautiful women... and how they interacted with each other, and also it portrays beautifully the relationship that they had with Holy Father Francis, and how much they meant to him...[/quote]

Thanks so much! I just ordered it through Interlibrary Loan!

I'd also recommend [i]My Beloved[/i], which is by a Carmelite nun of the mid=20th Century and has a lot of details about her entrance which is nice to read about.

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loveletslive

i second the mother teresa, john bosco, padre pio, and JP2 movies (karol is much better than the version with john voight).

also, for all the ladies out there please watch BELOVED a documentary about the nashville dominicans.

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VeniteAdoremus

Karol is so. brilliant.

Almost made me cry. (I don't cry at movies, ever, so "almost" will have to do :) )

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