Check out these books and movies any time of year!

December 23, 2021 – The National Catholic Register spoke with Leah Libresco Sargeant, Hoffman Ospino, Louis Brown and Timothy O’Malley for their best advice on how to celebrate Christmas as a Catholic.

When asked about practical ways to celebrate the season, Louis responded: “In a special way, Christmas should be about celebrating the reality that what was lost to us in the fall of Adam has been restored to us through Christ. We should be using the entire Christmas period to read books, attend live plays, and watch high quality films that get at that true meaning of the Christmas season. Movies like Ben Hur, It’s A Wonderful Life, The Kid Who Loved Christmas, The Preacher’s Wife, Family Man, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Hobbit trilogy and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. See a Christmas themed play if they’re still available in your area. Books that are great reading for the season include Interior Freedom (by Jacques Philippe), Be Healed (by Dr. Bob Schuchts), The Power of Silence (by Cardinal Robert Sarah), The Lord of the Rings (J.R.R. Tolkien) and Wild at Heart (by John Eldredge).

“As I was powerfully reminded from the soundtrack of one of the Hobbit films, through Christ’s birth, life, death, and resurrection, what was stolen from us — our divine inheritance — is being returned. That’s a cause for the most extraordinary celebration!”