The following comes from an Oct. 20 email from the StoryTel Foundation.

After four years in the making, StoryTel Foundation announces its documentary Miles Christi: Soldiers of Christ in America will premiere on EWTN on Nov. 16 at 4 p.m. eastern time. The one-hour film documents the formation of the Argentine religious order Miles Christi and its mission to help American Catholics grow in holiness.

Filmed on location in Luján, Argentina, and throughout the state of Michigan, the film takes the viewer behind the scenes and across cultures into the personal sphere of spiritual renewal. In-depth interviews with Miles Christi priests, brothers and seminarians weave a first-person account of the order’s founding in 1994, its expansion to the United States in 1999 and its providential connection with servant of God Father John Hardon, S.J.

As their name suggests and the film depicts, Miles Christi priests and brothers are spiritual soldiers of Christ dedicated to the sanctification of the laity. The documentary shows how they fulfill this mission by living and teaching the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius and providing spiritual direction for lay Catholics.

“More than ever we need soldiers, spiritually speaking, who will fight the good fight of faith,” explains Father Patrick Wainwright, Miles Christi priest, in the documentary.

As the film continues, viewers discover that Miles Christi priests and brothers are deployed all over the United States, Argentina and Mexico where they lead Ignatian silent retreats and offer a Christ-centered alternative to the dominant secular worldview.

“If there is no spirituality of conquest, it is very difficult to have the momentum, the enthusiasm, the desire to seek out others,” says Father Roberto Yannuzzi, founder and superior general of Miles Christi, as he describes the order’s charism on the documentary.

Miles Christ has conducted about 11 retreats every year in California since 2004. Bishop Brom invited the order to San Diego and they opened a house near La Mesa in 2008. San Diego has been home to four Miles Christi priests for more than five years. Click here for schedule of future retreats.

“You can tell right away when there’s a natural joy, a spontaneous fraternity in a community,” adds Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke, Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, on the film. “That’s what I see in their community.”

For more information about Miles Christi: Soldiers of Christ in America, click here.

For more information about the Miles Christi religious order, click here.