Click this book cover to read our interview with best-selling author Kent Nerburn.
‘THIS IS INDIAN LAND’
‘NATIVE ECHOES’—Beloved, best-selling author Kent Nerburn invites all of us back to Indian country in this beautiful new series of two dozen stories, called Native Echoes: Listening to the Spirit of the Land. In his new interview with David Crumm, Kent explains that there’s a whole lot more to this tour full of tales and spiritual reflections than meets the eye at first glance. As he has done in his earlier classics, especially Neither Wolf Nor Dog, Kent’s invitation to travel through Indian communities quickly triggers questions and a host of reflections about the typical Euro-American approach to progress in this country. In fact, as Kent often does, this twisting tale moves in circles and becomes what Kent describes as A Liturgy of the Land. It’s a beautiful book that we highly recommend, this week.
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Click the shamrocks to read about St. Patrick’s Day
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
ST. PATRICK’S BREASTPLATE—As Stephanie Fenton writes: St. Pat’s Day may be a secular bash in many communities, but it also has deep religious roots that matter to millions. In fact, after 11 years of publishing holiday stories, our posts about the prayer known as St. Patrick’s Breastplate rank among our most popular columns ever published.
All the Holidays
Want to see all the holidays? www.InterfaithHolidays.com
Click to learn more about Our Lent.
LENT for 2 BILLION—As Holidays columnist Stephanie Fenton reports, 2 billion Christians around the world are now in the midst of the reflective period that leads to Easter. Western Christians began with Ash Wednesday; Eastern Christians with Clean Monday. Eastern and Western Christians will travel through most of Lent together, but will diverge as the calendar turns to April. Western Christians celebrate Easter on April Fools Day (no kidding). The Orthodox wait for their Pascha until April 8.
L RON HUBBARD—Scientology members celebrate their founder’s birthday this week.
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NATIONAL DAY OF UNPLUGGING—Plan ahead to take part in a campaign to reduce our “screen time.” ReadTheSpirit fully supports such efforts, as you will read in our column about Screen Free Week. We also provide a link to the website that can connect you to other folks joining these efforts.
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Click this photo of Mark and students in Tobago to read this column.
Making a Difference:
1 Country at a Time
GOD SIGNS—Columnist Suzy Farbman specializes in introducing our readers to men and women who make a huge difference in our world—even if you’ve never heard of them until you discover her stories! This week, she introduces Mark Francis, whose passion for helping students with significant mental and physical challenges has sent him circling the globe. There’s a lot of helpful wisdom in this story about life’s possibilities—and our potential to shape the future. Enjoy this story—then share it with friends on social media—and make this world a little better because of your voice in sharing this good news!
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Front Edge Publishing
Click this image of Front Edge’s new front page to read this week’s column on publishing.
MAKING THE MOST OF GOODREADS—This week, marketing expert Susan Stitt offers an overview of Goodreads author pages. If you are an author yourself, Susan raises some helpful questions as you polish your author profile. Plus, some of the Goodreads rules have changed, especially on its Giveaways program. Susan explains how that program now works and provides helpful links to learn even more about these options. Want to learn more about publishing today? Please, share this home address with friends: www.FrontEdgePublishing.com
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FAITH & FILM
Click the image to read Ed’s review of A Wrinkle in Time.
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 discussion guides to films. This resource is used coast-to-coast by individuals who love the movies and by educators, clergy and small-group leaders.
Among Ed’s free reviews and columns are:
- A WRINKLE IN TIME—Ed tells us that children seemed to be mesmerized by this new feature film, but as an adult with little memory of the original novel—he has some concerns that the movie may jump around too much for some viewers. Read his entire review of the film. (3 out of 5 stars)
- MEET HANNAH LEADER—This week, Ed also features a Q-and-A with producer Hannah Leader. She worked on the recent film Return to Grace: Luther’s and Legacy and earlier with Robert Altman, Sidney Lumet and a series of Gospel films.
- PARABLE—Ed reaches back \to 1964 to recommend a short film that caused a stir in 1964 when it debuted at the New York World’s Fair. Parable was the creation of filmmaker Rolf Forsberg—and it’s back for free streaming on Amazon Prime currently.
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Click the image to read about Black Panther.
BLACK PANTHER—The film is spectacular, says Ed.
- LIVING BIBLICALLY—Want to talk with friends about the new CBS series? Ed has this discussion guide for The Year of Living Biblically. Also, Ed offers this review of the series. Plus, Ed interviewed the series creator Patrick Walsh.
- MOLLY’S GAME—Ed writes, “As a story about trying to preserve one’s integrity amidst sordid circumstances, this is a film worthy of your time and money, especially because Aaron Sorkin deals with a female protagonist this time. There is also a heart-warming scene of reconciliation, making this a good addition to my list of father-daughter films.” (4 stars)
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