CMI Materials: 2012-2013

Do you wonder how some people become enthusiastic and on fire about their relationship with God? In thirty-three short chapters, Albert Haase gives you the tools and kindling to prepare for the spark of God in your life – and then shows you how to fan it into flame until you are set ablaze. This book glows with time-tested wisdom as an experienced spiritual director shares the secrets of the saints. Feel cold? Or maybe just smoldering? With supplemental reading suggestions and reflection questions, this eminently practical book functions like a personal, spiritual retreat.

The Catholic Church is on the threshold of a bold new era in its two-thousand year history. As the curtain comes down on the Church defined by the 16th-century Counter-Reformation, the curtain is rising on the Evangelical Catholicism of the third millennium: a way of being Catholic that comes from over a century of Catholic reform; a mission-centered renewal honed by the Second Vatican Council and given compelling expression by Blessed John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI.

The Gospel-centered Evangelical Catholicism of the future will send all the people of the Church into mission territory every day—a territory increasingly defined in the West by spiritual boredom and aggressive secularism. Confronting both these cultural challenges and the shadows cast by recent Catholic history, Evangelical Catholicism unapologetically proclaims the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the truth of the world. It also molds disciples who witness to faith, hope, and love by the quality of their lives and the nobility of their aspirations. Thus the Catholicism of the 21st–century and beyond will be a culture-forming counterculture, offering all men and women of good will a deeply humane alternative to the soul-stifling self-absorption of postmodernity.

Drawing on thirty years of experience throughout the Catholic world, from its humblest parishes to its highest levels of authority, George Weigel proposes a deepening of faith-based and mission-driven Catholic reform that touches every facet of Catholic life—from the episcopate and the papacy to the priesthood and the consecrated life; from the renewal of the lay vocation in the world to the redefinition of the Church’s engagement with public life; from the liturgy to the Church’s intellectual life. Lay Catholics and clergy alike should welcome the challenge of this unique moment in the Church’s history, Weigel urges. Mediocrity is not an option, and all Catholics, no matter what their station in life, are called to live the evangelical vocation into which they were baptized: without compromise, but with the joy, courage, and confidence that comes from living this side of the Resurrection.

The Nazi occupation of France brings together Arabs and Jews against a common enemy in this drama from director Ismael Ferroukhi, inspired by actual incidents. Younes Tahar Rahim came to France from Algeria in search of a better life, but after landing a good job in a factory, the political turmoil that swept through Europe with the rise of the Third Reich left him with few options beyond hustling on the black market. His cousin Ali Farid Larbi is a labor activist who, after the rise of the Vichy government, began working with the anti-Nazi French resistance. When Younes is captured by the police while selling unlicensed goods, he's given a choice -- he can go to jail or act as a spy, keeping the authorities posted on the activities at a local mosque, which is a hub for resistance fighters. As well as organizing anti-Nazi espionage, the resistance agents at the mosque are believed to be hiding Jewish families and passing them off as Muslims. Younes proves to be not much of a spy as his loyalties are with Ali and his comrades, and he becomes involved with Leila Lubna Azabal, who, in addition to her work at the mosque, is a vocal advocate of Algerian independence. Younes and Ali also are drawn into the orbit of Salim Mahmud Shalaby, a seemingly apolitical Algerian vocalist who is hiding a surprising secret. Les Hommes Libres aka Free Men received its North American premiere at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival.

In a tour-de-force performance, international mezzo soprano Linn Maxwell transports us back to medieval Europe to meet German writer, composer, healer and prophet Hildegard of Bingen in this captivating one-woman show. Throughout her life of devotion, Hildegard experienced visions from God that called her to express herself through her many talents and assume a role of leadership inside the church - one that challenged the male-dominated establishment and moved some to silence her.

Accompanying herself on authentic medieval instruments, Linn performs Hildegard's original songs and, through the mystic's actual writings, embodies the life and passion of an extraordinary woman who lived centuries ahead of her time.

This special DVD also contains numerous EXTRA material, including interviews with noted St. Hildegard scholars and experts from around the world, and a two-part informal seminar that will help facilitate parish and book group discussions.

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove explores in detail:

• How St. Benedict composed his Rule.
•The worldwide impact of the Rule after Benedict's death.
•Benedictine charisms of hospitatliy, listening, and lectio divina.
•Three promises of the Christian life according to the Rule: stability, obedience, and conversion.
•The benefits of organizing our lives around "rhythms".

Study guide included.

Based on candid interviews with thousands of young people tracked over a five-year period, this book reveals how the religious practices of the teenagers portrayed in Soul Searching have been strengthened, challenged, and often changed as they have moved into adulthood.

12 Lectures on 5 CDs by Fr. Anthony Ciorra, M.A., M.Div., Ph.D. internationally celebrated spirituality expert and recipient of Pope John Paul II’s Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice honor

The Second Vatican Council concluded fifty years ago, but it is a livelier topic today than it has been for decades. Basic questions are being asked. What did the council do? Was it properly implemented? Are its decisions being systematically “rolled back”?

Good questions, but to answer them good information is needed. Such information is precisely what these twelve insightful lectures provide. These lectures will give you the orientation you need to understand one of the most important events of the 20th century, to appreciate the problems it faced, and to grapple with the questions being asked about it (and the Catholic Church) today.