Radiating Joy: The Michelle Duppong Story

Sarah Torbeck reviews the warm, engaging, and transformative documentary about a young missionary on the path to sainthood.

Radiating Joy: The Michelle Duppong Story

When I initially began screening the movie Radiating Joy: The Michelle Duppong Story (1:35min.), I confess that my expectations were … restrained. I don’t mean that I was unhappy about reviewing this movie (after all, I chose to review it) but I had seen other well-meaning, religious-themed movies that left me … underwhelmed.

I could not have been more derelict in my assumptions, however. This documentary about Servant of God Michelle Duppong’s life was warm, engaging, and even transformative.

Synopsis

The movie begins with Michelle’s entry into the world as a charming and lovable child, with an innate sense of the sacred, and a longing for the Divine.

We follow her journey into adulthood, where she eventually applies to the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS): a Catholic outreach organization that trains and utilizes young people to be missionaries within parishes, campuses and communities.

As a missionary for FOCUS, Michelle is described as an effervescent young woman, with an unquenchable thirst for the salvation of souls. Her evangelization methods are simple and disarming: a compelling smile, immersion into the lives of the people she encounters, and an ardent desire to be united with her Savior.

This irresistible combination of love, hope and truth prove to be powerful and effective tools in the battle for souls, and Michelle is credited with affecting hundreds of lives during the years she worked for FOCUS.

On the path to sainthood

As one might intuit from the title “Servant of God,” Michelle is unexpectedly diagnosed with a terminal illness at the tender age of 30. Her acceptance of this diagnosis, and willingness to suffer for the greater glory of God, continued to offer Christian witness to the people in the medical community as well as her friends, family and fellow missionaries. Her journey into physical suffering was deemed heroic as she endured the effects of her illness and waited to be united with her God.

That prayer was ultimately fulfilled just a year after her diagnosis. She died at the age of 31, on Christmas Day — which she had predicted.

And now her story has been made into a poignant and inspiring movie that details the effects Michelle’s life had on others, as well as the miracles that have started to flow from her posthumous intercessions before the Throne of Grace and Mercy.

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A call to prayer

I admit to being inspired as well. As I watched the movie, I felt Michelle’s gentle witness speak to me, and I recognized some issues in my own life that needed to be clarified and completed. I have also begun to pray to Michelle — and for her continued cause — as we wait for additional miracles and testimonies to come forward.

And I have no doubt they will.

Pray for us, Servant of God, Michelle Duppong!

Radiating Joy will be in select theaters Tuesday, November 12. Tickets are available through FathomEvents.com.

Learn more about the work of FOCUS as well as the Michelle Duppong Guild, which promotes Michelle's cause for canonization.

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Radiating Joy: The Michelle Duppong Story