‘You’ve got to read this!’
THAT’S WHAT WE HOPE OUR READERS say to their friends when we produce each weekly issue of our online magazine. Since 2007, we have published more than 850 of those “weekly issues” (meaning a fresh lineup of stories each Monday on our ReadTheSpirit.com front page). This week—as we do at the end of each year—we look back across our previous 51 issues and we highlight 10 stories that really got our readers talking in 2023! Please, enjoy this annual Top 10 list and remember to keep sharing these inspiring and thought-provoking stories with friends as we move into the New Year 2024.
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Holidays & Festivals
WANT TO SEE ALL OF THE UPCOMING HOLIDAYS & FESTIVALS?—It’s easy to find our annual calendar of global observances. Just remember the web address: InterfaithHolidays.com
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Click this photograph of Edward McNulty from his service in Freedom Summer in Mississippi in 1964 to read our tribute to his remarkable career.
Faith & Film
ED McNULTY, for decades, has published reviews, magazine articles and books exploring connections between faith and film. Most of his work is freely published. Ed supports his work by selling the Visual Parables Journal, a monthly magazine packed with film reviews and discussion guides. This resource is used nationwide by individuals who love the movies and by educators, clergy and small-group leaders.
Here are some of Ed’s most recent free reviews and columns:
- A SPECIAL DECEMBER TREAT from Ed is his recap of three now-classic holiday films:
- This is the 20th anniversary of Love Actually.
- And who doesn’t love Will Ferrell in Elf.
- However, too many folks overlook the heart-warming gem of a family homecoming tale, Katie Holmes in Pieces of April.
- WISH—Ed writes, “This new Disney musical fairytale pays reference to traditional classics of the studio but rejects their paternalism by focusing upon a young woman who is not waiting for a prince to come to her rescue.”
- SHIFT—“What an incredible combination of sci-fi, faith and romance writer/director Brock Heasley serves up in this utterly engrossing film!“
- RUSTIN—Ed writes, “The overlooked civil rights activist Bayard Rustin (Colman Domingo), often called the architect of the 1963 March on Washington, is finally getting his due, thanks to the new film directed by George C. Wolfe.”
- JOAN BAEZ: I AM A NOISE—Ed urges us to see this new film and writes, “Like most of my generation, I loved Joan Baez, her clear soprano voice uniting us as we listened to her at civil rights events or played her records alone in our rooms at night sometimes so drawn in that we sang along.”
- THE HOLDOVERS—Ed gives 5 stars to this unusual “Christmas movie” about a disgruntled teacher (Paul Giamatti) stuck with students who can’t go home for the holidays.
- JOURNEY TO BETHLEHEM—Ed writes, “Director/co-writer Adam Anders and writer Peter Barsocchini have served up an interesting Nativity Story by combining the Gospel accounts of Christ’s birth and then adding to them a lot of fanciful material that includes singing and dancing.”
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