ON FAITH & MEDIA | Winter Solstice

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Winter Solstice

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Source: Catholic News Service

Engrossing domestic drama about a blue-collar widower (Anthony LaPaglia) coping with his two teenage boys -- one who announces he's leaving home (Aaron Stanford), and the other a troublesome, moody student (Mark Webber) -- and the compassionate woman (Allison Janney) who moves into a nearby house and reaches out to them. Writer-director Josh Sternfeld, in his feature-film debut, has crafted a sensitive slice-of-life story that rings absolutely true. The performances, especially LaPaglia's, are extraordinary, and a good pro-family message and a hopeful ending give a somber story a positive uplift. Rough and crude language, a couple of brief violent episodes, tobacco use. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted.

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Matt Talbot: Matt can be considered the patron of men and women struggling with alcoholism.
<p>Matt was born in Dublin, where his father worked on the docks and had a difficult time supporting his family. After a few years of schooling, Matt obtained work as a messenger for some liquor merchants; there he began to drink excessively. For 15 years—until he was almost 30—Matt was an active alcoholic. </p><p>One day he decided to take "the pledge" for three months, make a general confession and begin to attend daily Mass. There is evidence that Matt’s first seven years after taking the pledge were especially difficult. Avoiding his former drinking places was hard. He began to pray as intensely as he used to drink. He also tried to pay back people from whom he had borrowed or stolen money while he was drinking. </p><p>Most of his life Matt worked as a builder’s laborer. He joined the Secular Franciscan Order and began a life of strict penance; he abstained from meat nine months a year. Matt spent hours every night avidly reading Scripture and the lives of the saints. He prayed the rosary conscientiously. Though his job did not make him rich, Matt contributed generously to the missions. </p><p>After 1923 his health failed, and Matt was forced to quit work. He died on his way to church on Trinity Sunday. Fifty years later Pope Paul VI gave him the title venerable.</p>

We are called to share in the infinite life and love of God. We are called by God to a relationship that is destined to transform us into his likeness, to “divinize” us. This is going to take some stretching, to say the least.

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