Today on "Kresta in the Afternoon" - October 11, 2013

Talking about the "things that matter most" on October 11

Live from the EWTN / Catholic Radio Association Conference in Birmingham, AL

4:00 – “Grace Unplugged” - #1 Fan Favorite on Opening Weekend
From Facebook to Fandango, from Rotten Tomatoes to Twitter, from Yahoo to your emails, “Grace Unplugged” fans are speaking up and speaking up loudly. This faith-filled family film is Fandango's No. 1 viewer-rated movie in theaters! We talk to director Brad Silverman about this story about a prodigal daughter and the strained relationship with her father.

4:20 – Spiritual Disciplines Segment: The Devil’s War on Silence
There are key strategies of indirect attack that the enemy of our souls uses to significantly disrupt our spiritual progress. One is the corruption of human sexuality. As the analogy of holy spousal love is one of the most effective in understanding divine intimacy, the enemy desires to corrupt human sexuality in order to further obscure what it means to understand the possibilities of union with God. Similarly, there is another indirect attack that wreaks havoc on the soul’s ability grow in intimacy with God — noise. In our culture, noise is everywhere. Dan Burke, author of Navigating the Interior Life, is here to discuss these attacks.

4:40 – Shaping Our Nation: How Surges of Migration Transformed America and Its Politics
It is often said that America has become culturally diverse only in the past quarter century. But from the country’s beginning, cultural variety and conflict have been a centrifugal force in American politics and a crucial reason for our rise to power. The peopling of the United States is one of the most important stories of the last five hundred years, and in Shaping our Nation, bestselling author and demographics expert Michael Barone illuminates a new angle on America’s rise, using a vast array of political and social data to show America is the product of a series large, unexpected mass movements—both internal and external—which typically lasted only one or two generations but in that time reshaped the nation,  and created lasting tensions that were difficult to resolve. He joins us today.

5:00 – Bambinelli Sunday: A Christmas Blessing
Alessandro is staying with his grandparents, who run a small shop that sells figures for the presepe (Nativity scene), while his parents look for work in another country. To help with the boy’s loneliness, his grandfather encourages Alessandro to make his own figure of the baby Jesus. They will bring that figure to Rome in two weeks to have it blessed by the Holy Father on Bambinelli Sunday. Through the events that occur in the time leading up to receiving the blessing in St. Peter's Square, Alessandro comes to see his world in a new way, and receives the best surprise of all in the end. It’s the latest children’s book by Amy Welborn and she is here with us. 

5:40 – A Catholic Look at the Government Shutdown and Debt Ceiling Debate
To hear liberals and the mainstream media tell it, it would be something verging on Armageddon. Whole government agencies would cease to function. Tens of thousands -- make that hundreds of thousands -- of government bureaucrats would be furloughed. Regulations could not be enforced. Taxes could not be collected. Welfare checks could not be distributed. And the sausage factory that is the United States Congress would stop. To which millions of Americans are increasingly inclined to respond: So what’s the bad news? But seriously, says Sam Gregg, there is much to be gained from the federal government shutdown. He is with us to explain.