by Charles Coyle

I lecture to Catholic teaching students at the University of Glasgow.  One of the courses I teach on is Catholic Teacher Formation.  This is a four-year course, and each year is based upon a pilar of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  Year one is prayer, year two is liturgy and sacraments, year three is the moral life, and year four is faith.

Each summer I travel with some of our students to foreign countries where the students work in a Catholic school for a couple of weeks, gaining invaluable experience.  Last year on the flight to Malawi, the students were encouraging me to watch particular films.  The film they universally loved was ‘My sister’s keeper.  I had heard of it, but the film had passed me by, I probably saw the trailer and thought it was a bit of a feel-good film for a younger audience and left it at that.

To please the students, I watched the film and I’m pleased to say that I still feel grateful to those students for recommending it.  It is marvellous, and the performances of the main cast are excellent.  It’s the kind of film that once you watch it, you never really forget it.  But why is that?

Fr Charles Coyle is the Co-ordinator of Spiritual & Pastoral Formation & Lecturer in Teacher Education for the St Andrews Foundation for Catholic Teacher Formation at the University of Glasgow.