In one of our favorite definitions of spirituality, Brother David Steindl-Rast (The Music of Silence) cautions against our thinking that spirituality is some "separate department of life, the penthouse of our existence." Rightly understood, he explains, "it is a vital awareness that pervades all realms of our being. . . . Whereever we come alive, that is the area in which we are spiritual." For many of us, that is when we are caring for one another and the planet.

This can happen at any time and at any place, and for some of us it happens at the movies. And not just during those movies typically classified as "spiritual cinema" — films full of people talking about abstract metaphysical issues or dealing with religious challenges. In making our choices for the most spiritually literate films of the years, we are less interested in enlightenment or salvation than in the experiences of the characters and the journey that gets them to a place of aliveness.

This years' best movies depict the spiritual journeys of a diamond smuggler and a fisherman, some British citizens mistakenly arrested as terrorists, an elderly actor, a teenage caregiver, a deaf Japanese teenager, a Mexican nanny, a family of Moroccan goat-herders, two American tourists in North Africa, an immigrant mail-order bride and a farmer, a dysfunctional family, members of the British royalty, a suburban mother, an African-American schoolgirl, and an independent penguin. The films, including an outstanding field of documentaries, raise questions about such critical world issues as war, global warming, freedom of expression, the nature of community, and religious fundamentalism. These movies will elicit your empathy for people facing all kinds of challenges and, in the end, they will inform as well as inspire. See our full list of "The Most Spiritually Literate Films of 2006."