Book Reviews Archives - Page 2 of 8

Sacred Reading for Advent and Christmas

Sacred Reading is a daily gospel reflection book put out by the Apostleship of Prayer and published by Ave Maria Press. This particular book is focused on Advent and Christmas for this year. There are many things I like about this book.

It encourages us to read the day’s gospel, which is so important if we want to know Jesus. It also introduces us to Lectio Divina, a prayerful way to read scripture. Each day contains prayer prompts, the gospel, and questions to ponder.

There are six steps each day: know that God is present with you and ready to converse, read the gospel, notice what you think and feel as you read the gospel, pray as you are led for yourself and others, listen to Jesus, and ask God to show you how to live today. Each section, except the gospel, has a prompt to get you started thinking about the gospel or what is happening in your life or around you that needs attention.

What I like about this book is that the questions posed are not lofty theological ones but rather, practical ones. What am I to do today? How am I to live doing God’s will? Each day you ask that question you are reminding yourself that God is in charge and that his will for your life is the best course of action.

Especially during the Advent and Christmas season when our culture is hyper-focused on doing and buying and rushing it is necessary for us to pause, ponder and recall what this season is about. This book will guide you in your daily life through the prayer and meditation to focus on the Incarnation.

I use the year long version of this book for my daily prayer time and find it to be very much on-point and thought provoking. This shorter book is a great way to introduce people to this style of prayer and reflection.

Sacred Reading would be a great gift to catechists and families. I highly recommend it as a way to prepare for our Savior’s birth for everyone who wants to pray with the scriptures.

The book is available at Ave Maria Press.

Book Review – Keep Your Kids Catholic by Marc Cardaronella

By Deanna Bartalini

I was eager to read Keep Your Kids Catholic by Marc Cardaronella for many reasons. Many people on social media and sites I frequent had positive comments about it; I need resources to share with my families in our faith formation program; and I’m working on revamping that program to include some parent component. And of course, I wanted to know if I’d done of Marc’s ideas when I was raising my own kids.

What I look for in resources for parents are books which teach without being preachy, doable activities that take a minimum of preparation and implementation time, and are possible for parents who are and those who aren’t, well versed in the faith. I’m happy to say Cardaronella does all of that and more.

The book is divided into four parts, “How does Faith Work”; “Is Your Own Faith Secure?”, “What Kind of Education Fosters Faith?” and “How do You Create an Environment of Faith?”. Each part has four chapters and at the end of each chapter there is a section called, “Reflect, Pray, Live” which gives action points for parents on how to implement the ideas in the chapter.

Marc weaves his own faith journey story into the book, reminding readers that no one is perfect and coming to faith is a process which happens over time. It’s not a once and done proposition. Many points he made about our religious education programs resonated with me and reminded me yet again how much work we need to do in that area.

I’m not going to give you every quote I highlighted from the book, but here are two that can give you a sense of his tone and style.

“Faith doesn’t automatically develop from reception of the sacraments and religious education…although those two things are important in nurturing faith.” This is a constant struggle. It is almost as if parents and even sometimes catechists and program directors believe that learning enough facts, prayers, and information to receive certain sacraments means we’ve helped someone grow in faith. Knowledge does not determine faith.

This quote is possibly my absolute favorite, “The goal of faith formation is not a theoretical knowledge of Catholic doctrine, but a lived experience of faith in Jesus Christ.” Can someone work on that thought becoming a part of every mission statement of faith formation programs?

I know I’ve focused quite a bit on my personal perspective of why this book is a necessary read. Let me say that I found it to be a book for all of us who interact with children in regard to their faith journey. I will encourage the parents of the families I work with to pick up this book and put its ideas into practice.

Parents have a tremendous influence over their children and are often at a loss as to how to have a positive and effective input where faith is concerned. Keep your Kids Catholic does a wonderful job of providing practical information on how to help children grow in their faith.

For more information about the book or to purchase, you can go to Ave Maria Press.

Book Review: To Heal, Proclaim, and Teach by Jared Dees

By Deanna Bartalini

Those of us in the business of doing Catechesis are well aware that things are not quite coming together as we’d hoped. And there is frustration all around along with finger pointing and blaming. In addition, we have this call to the New Evangelization and honestly, for many catechists that’s too much on top of trying to teach about the faith. Or is it?
Jared Dees new book, To Heal, Proclaim, and Teach: The Essential Guide to Ministry in Today’s Catholic Church shows us how to put evangelization and catechesis together in ways that I believe can work.
There is comprehensive information about where we stand in religious education, how we got here, and what needs to change. But Dees does not leave it there. Which is good, because at 300 pages I really wanted some practical advice on how to improve the faith formation program I run.
And practical is what is in there. For different levels, ages and stages of the people we minister to in our parishes. Let’s face it, there is no one size fits all when it comes to “how to do it”, whatever “it” you are trying to do. But there are best practices and proven ideas they can help you figure out the next step.
A few key points from the book that struck me:
The distinction between kerygma and didache; “Kerygma is the first proclamation….It expresses the essential of our faith to those who have yet to fully accept it in their lives.” “Didache, on the other hand, is the deposit of faith passed down through the Church from Jesus himself.”
Dees quotes St. John Paul II, “The definitive aim of catechesis is to put people not only in touch but in communion, in intimacy, with Jesus Christ.” Yet when we plan our programs, is our main focus communion with Christ or what needs to be known in order to be confirmed? It’s not that knowledge is bad, but it is not the end goal.
One of my favorite sections in the book was Entertainment Vs. Engagement. Dees points out that “Engagement is unlike entertainment in that we are required to participate…we do the creating…Engagement is not easy; it is challenging. “Jesus challenged the people of his time and so must we.
Dees does an excellent job of explain what he means by heal, proclaim and teach. If he had stopped there it would be an interesting book. But he goes one step further in Part IV of the book by giving concrete examples of Evangelizing Ministry with Every Generation. Besides all of this practical information each chapter has additional resources on the website, To Heal, Proclaim, and Teach.
If you are involved in parish ministry, as a paid professional or volunteer, this book is an excellent resource. It gave me direction, practical ideas and even more importantly, hope. I could not recommend it more strongly.

For more information on the book and to purchase a copy go to Ave Maria Press.

Book Review: “The Four Keys to Everlasting Love: How Your Catholic Marriage Can Bring You Joy for a Lifetime”

By Elizabeth Tichvon

Manuel and Karee Santos have written an honest, sensible and faithful guidebook that I’m confident will become a go-to comfort for Catholic couples seeking help in their marriage. An ideal gift of learning and support for the newly-engaged or married; a beautiful witness of how to help one another attain holiness within God’s gift of the marriage covenant. [Release Date: April 8, 2016]

Catechist Daily

Saints Who Battled Satan is a heart-thumping read

By Lisa Mladinich

I was asked to review a chapter of Dr. Paul Thigpen’s new book, “Saints Who Battled Satan: Seventeen Holy Warriors Who Can Teach You How to Fight the Good Fight and Vanquish Your Ancient Enemy,” and I’m so glad to have received a copy from the publisher.

It’s just the sort of thing I love: true stories of heroic faith, with good triumphing over evil. And it’s a heart-thumping read.

“Saints Who Battled Satan,” is both inspiring and creepy, but it’s also packed with important information about what spiritual warfare is and what we can do about it. Dr. Thigpen’s book is accessibly written and of great importance for our times.

The narrative loosely spans Salvation History with seventeen stories, from Eve’s humiliating defeat to Padre Pio’s triumphant resistance against the enemy’s vicious attacks. Dr. Thigpen includes a highly entertaining and encouraging chapter called, “Brief Scenes of Saints in Battle,” and a fascinating final section called, “Saintly Wisdom for the Battle,” which the author has packed with insightful commentaries on battling the demonic by many of our greatest saints. It’s almost impossible to stop reading, once you begin. Well before you have finished, you will most certainly be inspired to pray.

The chapter I was asked to review is about St. Gemma Galgani (1878-1903). Gemma was a young Italian woman who heard Jesus call out to her, asking for victim souls to make reparation for the sins of the world. She responded with incredible generosity. Here is an excerpt of her diary:

Photo by By Philippe Plet, circa 1900. Public Domain via Wikipedia Commons

I am the victim and Jesus the sacrificing priest. Act quickly, O Jesus! All that Jesus wills, I desire. Everything that Jesus sends me is a gift. (p. 156)

What followed is the stuff of nightmares, but Gemma stood firm, clinging to her belief in the mercy of God, while enduring incredible sufferings of spirit, mind, and body. When the devil could not trick her into despair, lure her away from her spiritual director, or keep her from her prayers, his attacks became physical. She was thrown to the floor, her hair ripped out, her body beaten.

But because even the physical torments could not dissuade her from trusting in the love of Jesus for her soul, the evil one appeared in various disguises to try to confuse her: a priest in the confessional, an angel of light, and an apparition that looked like the suffering Jesus, himself. In order to discern quickly whether the visions were of heavenly or diabolical origin, Jesus told her to ask them to cry out with her, “Blessed be Jesus and Mary!” The apparitions of sinister origin would mumble and avoid the holy names of Jesus and Mary, and Gemma would promptly scorn them.

After her death from tuberculosis, at age 25, miracles began occurring. People plagued by demons would pray to her and be delivered. To this day, incidences continue to be recorded of St. Gemma’s powerful intervention during exorcisms!

Find this amazing book, at TAN.

St. Gemma Galgani, pray for us!

Book Review: The Case for Jesus

By Maureen Smith

Tomorrow marks the release of Dr. Brant Pitre’s newest book, The Case for Jesus. I am happy to review this book and hope that you are able to get your hands on a copy!

In his other works, Dr. Pitre has unlocked the meaning of Scripture and Tradition in light of Christianity’s Jewish roots and now he reveals for us the historical context and purpose of the Gospels and their authors.

Dr. Pitre brings an ancient freshness to the Gospel texts, allowing readers to see each of them from the perspective of their author and those to whom the Gospels were first proclaimed.

The Case for Jesus is a helpful resource to anyone studying Scripture or Christology, or to anyone wishing to deepen their relationship with Christ.

In the opening chapters, The Case for Jesus tackles the myth that the Gospel’s were anonymously written. Dr. Pitre displays the overwhelming evidence of their authorship and deepens our understanding of each of the Gospels.

After guiding us through the historical evidence for the authorship of the four Gospels, Pitre doesn’t just leave us at the doorstep of the New Testament. He then helps us to understand some of the basic Christological questions that may have gone unanswered in our Sunday school classes or even in our religious studies courses, such as those concerning Jesus’ own self-perception. He confirms for us what the Church has taught for almost two thousand years in a manner that is both engaging and is also accessible to today’s laity, making it a great guide for Bible studies and small group discussions.

This literary pilgrimage enables readers to encounter Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John as friends. They become close companions in our quest to come to know the Person of Jesus, the long-awaited Messiah and Divine Son of God. As he discusses the Gospels, Pitre also weaves in passages from the Old and New Testaments as well as other sources, helping us to access the deeper meaning behind many of the of Scriptural texts.

As I journeyed through The Case for Jesus, the life of Christ was fleshed out for me. I can approach Sacred Scripture with new eyes and greater confidence in my comprehension of the Gospels. Many of the Scripture passages that have always been a mystery to me are now fonts of wisdom for my spiritual life.

I highly recommend this work for anyone wishing to gain greater access to Scripture and to the Person of Jesus. To all who read The Case for Jesus, this book will not only enable you to answer tough questions. It will also be a navigation guide as you read the Gospels and at the same time enrich your life of prayer.

Enjoy!

12 Nuggets from Rediscover Jesus

By Deanna Bartalini

I finished reading Rediscover Jesus by Matthew Kelly and I enjoyed it very much!

I gleaned a few things I’d like to tell you about and I will in a minute. First though, the book is a nice, easy read but it asks tough questions and offers ways to learn more about Jesus and grow into a, dare I say, better Christian. Each chapter ends with action items: Point to Ponder, Verse to Live, Question to Consider, and Prayer. If you thought, learned and prayed those four items each day for forty days (which is the number of chapters in the book) I think you would be a different person, hopefully better, at the end of that time. I suppose I could have done that, but I am a book glutton so I can’t just read one chapter a day. Ideally, I’ll go back to those chapters which challenged me the most and read those again.

Onto my list of nuggets from the book!

“Jesus is the ultimate new beginning.”
“He (Jesus) wants to perform miracles in you and through you.”
“Who do you say that Jesus is?”
“When is the last time you were awestruck by Jesus?”
“Who does Jesus say that you are?”
- “Jesus says you are a child of God.”
- “Jesus says you are infinitely valuable.”
- “Jesus says you are free.”
“If we could just learn to recognize people’s needs and pain, there are so many prayers that God want to use us to answer. Too many go unanswered because ordinary people like you and me don’t allow the Holy Spirit to guide us.”
“God is not in the business of tweaking. He is in the business of transformation.”
“We don’t see ourselves as we really are, and God’s ways are not man’s.”
“Few things will have more impact on your life than what you allow to occupy your mind…ponder the ways of God and you will find yourself living them.”
“If you want to be a better Christian, start by denying yourself.”
“What do I want? What does God want?”
God is more interested in your future than he is in your past – but he is most interested in your now!”

Chapters 24, The Gap and 28, Spontaneous Prayer , were probably my favorite. The Gap was full of practical tips which Kelly explains fully in successive chapters. Spontaneous Prayer made me think about and ponder Gospel verses in a new way.

If you’d like a copy of the book, go to Dynamic Catholic. They’d make great stocking stuffers

Choosing Wholeness, Abundant Life, and Enduring Happiness

By Karee Santos

Just in time for this month’s World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia, Image Books has released a book-length interview of Bishop Jean Laffitte, the current secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Family. It’s the Council’s task to organize the World Meeting of Families every three years. This year is the first time it will be held in the United States.

The book highlights the richness of family life well-lived, as hinted at by its title, The Choice of the Family: A Call to Wholeness, Abundant Life, and Enduring Happiness. In its format, it resembles previous best-selling full-length interviews of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, including Light of the World and others.

Bishop Laffitte touches on all the hot-button issues of cohabitation, sexuality, adultery, divorce and remarriage, and the right of the Church to make its voice heard in the public square. But he also offers advice, rich with years of experience, about fostering a love of God in individuals, engaged couples, families, and young children. The key to opening people’s hearts is that “the priest must have an interest in their happiness,” says Bishop Laffitte.

Marriage preparation has an essential role to play in forming strong families, and the bishop provides helpful insights to priests and anyone else involved in this ministry. Fully aware of the challenges, he is not a man with his head stuck in the clouds. “Many people demand the sacrament of marriage from the Church while totally misunderstanding what the sacrament signifies. …We need to be aware,” he cautions. We must reawaken the desire and the hope for permanence and indissolubility that “is demanded by the nature of love,” he adds. When we give love as a gift, we give it totally and forever. Anything less is merely a loan, unworthy of the name of love.

In marriage preparation, instructors can discover what the couple’s expectations are of marriage and perhaps help them to see their future more realistically. It will not be all good or all bad. When the bad times come, spouses need to forgive each other, reconcile with each other, and realize that the suffering will pass — what Bishop Laffitte calls “an ordinary practice of reconciliation.”

Despite the importance of this type of common sense advice, marriage preparation operates on more than a psychological or social level — it must be a spiritual event, according to the bishop. If a marriage minister does not “introduce the engaged couple into an experience of prayer, I do not know where they are headed! I find it insane that people are prepared over the course of months for the sacrament of marriage and … nobody invites them to pray,” he says.

Marriage itself is also a spiritual event. It is a privileged path to encounter divine love through the transforming power of human love. And God does not offer anyone a love that is second-best. Marriage ministers can communicate that beautiful truth to the couples they counsel while preparing them for the sacrament of Matrimony. As Bishop Laffitte states movingly, “The fiancés must feel loved and be led to Christ. There is then an opening of the heart that takes place, and then there can be space for the grace of Christ. We have to believe it.”

Copyr. 2015 Karee Santos

Crafting with Arma Dei

By Deanna Bartalini

I am a big believer in occupying the hands of little ones as we instruct them. They enjoy doing things themselves and having a finished product to show parents and this way when asked “what did you do today?” they can show something. Of course, the hope is that parents look at it and then discuss it too!

Monica McConkey of Arma Dei: Equipping Catholic Families emailed me a kit that I choose for review, the “Journey with Jesus” scrapbook which includes the seven sacraments; explanations of sin, the domestic Church, and the Mas as well as definitions from the catechism and prayers. She breaks down the topics very well, asking questions with space for answers and helps lead the children to understanding by making the faith personal and relevant to their lives. The line drawings were done by Monica’s daughter, are well done and appealing. Plus, they are big enough to color if you want.

The logistics of the kit are fairly simple. You order on line at the Arma Dei website and the have the PDF download immediately. Be sure to print on only one side your paper. (my advice, so you can learn from my mistakes) Other supplies needed are scissors and glue, crayons if you’ll be coloring the pictures. If you want to make a cover, you’ll need card stock or construction paper. Instructions are included to make an accordion fold book or you can cut each page, glue it onto construction paper and make a larger book.

What I like about the craft is the flexibility, both of the content and finished product. Depending on your needs, each sacrament could be made separately, the prayer pages to make a prayer book, the Mass pages to make a Mass book or whatever suits you best. If I were to do it with a class, I’d probably make a scrapbook with construction paper, rather than an accordion book.

I am passing this on to the second grade catechist and will have the other catechists take a look on the website and see what they would like for their classes this year. I think this is an excellent product, practical yet engaging and most of all, very accurate in presenting the truths of our faith.

There are many other kits, games and resources on the website, both free and for a fee. Monica is also about to release a new series on Super Saints. Here is a video to learn more. You are sure to find something you can use for you family or class.

Broken Gods: REVIEW

By Lisa Mladinich

REVIEW: Broken Gods: Hope, Healing, and the 7 Longings of the Human Heart, by Gregory K. Popcak, Ph.D. (Image Books)

Did you know that God is slowly transforming you into a god and that a holy code exists that unlocks the secrets of this process?

From the earliest days of the Church, this process, called “divinization,” has been recognized and believed by all of Christianity. Since God shares his nature with us through adoption, and since his grace transforms and heals us as we journey toward heaven, we gradually become more authentic reflections of his divine image: glorious, perfect, and completely fulfilled.

But of what use is this insight to us as we struggle to comprehend our everyday joys and sorrows?

Dr. Gregory K. Popcak, an eminent and faithful Catholic psychologist and radio host has authored many superb books, some of which I own and love. His newest title, which I received from his publisher for review, Broken Gods: Hope, Healing, and the 7 Longings of the Human Heart, continues to raise the bar on his greatest strength: synthesizing faith, science, and psychology in ways that empower relationships and nourish souls.

Since the fall of human kind, human beings created in the image and likeness of God, willed into existence in order to share in the divine nature, have been broken and confused about our own worth and destiny. Our deepest longings, Popcak explains, can lead us deeper into confusion or, when properly understood, can mark a powerful and beautiful path of sanctity, joy, and ultimate fulfillment.

Popcak’s thrilling work explores the seven principle desires of the human heart for abundance, dignity, justice, peace, trust, well-being, and communion, and reveals the holy code hidden within our sufferings. By weaving psychology, science, spirituality, engaging case studies, and a simple, but powerful, step-by-step system for increasing understanding and self-awareness, he unpacks those buried longings so that we can pursue them more authentically through the prism of God’s call to our hearts.

I underlined so much and turned down so many pages that struck and inspired me that I’d have to quote most of the book in order to provide a complete understanding of why I so highly recommend this unique work; so I’ll have to pick just a few excerpts and ideas and let you discover the rest on your own!

Popcak really got my attention early in the book with this:

Though we are often tempted to feel that our lives and hopes and dreams are burning down around us, deification is the blueprint that allows us to rebuild our lives from the ashes and become everything God intended us to be from the beginning… Understanding deification enables us to finally stop running from our sins and instead begin running toward divinity. (p. 7)

On page 11, Popcak references an image taken from the prodigal son’s return, saying that God meets us as we humbly approach him in fear and trembling:

And yet, even that understandable fear is cast out by the perfect love (see 1 Jn 4:18) that flows from the heart of God, who calls to us, runs to meet us on the road, and wraps his finest cloak–his divinity–around us (see Lk 15:22).

I’ll give you a sense of how much just the foundational chapters effected me. In a section called, “The Inner Ache” (p. 14), I had an epiphany and wrote this in the margin:

Do I believe that God, in his desire to share his nature with me, has truly AMAZING plans for my life? If I do, then my dreams are SACRED and should have my TOTAL COMMITMENT.

In Chapter Two, the author asks,

What if there was a way to stop being afraid of your desires?

and goes on to explain that

…even your most neurotic and destructive desires can be transformed into an engine of divine actualization that can propel you down the path toward both a more joyful life in the present and the fulfillment of your ultimate destiny… (p. 17)

Later he says,

These seven divine longings have such tremendous potential to propel us toward divinization that Satan works hard to keep them hidden where we are least likely to look, behind the parts of ourselves we hate the most. (p. 25)

Did you catch that? The greatest treasures of our souls are often hidden in our self-hatred.

Lest you suspect that the book merely proposes these life-altering, hope-filled ideas, the rest of his work is specific, practical, and sites fascinating examples of actual individuals and couples whose lives and relationships were profoundly healed through the methods Popcak employs, based on these concepts.

Both our bodies and our brains are hardwired for holiness. Using neuroscience, genetic studies, and the theology of the body, Dr. Popcak reveals the innate wisdom of our bodies: when we live according to God’s plan, we are healthier and happier, and it is easier to think and learn! Within the path of sanctity lie all the secrets to our ultimate destiny: union with God and the most perfect expression of our holy individuality.

Presenting a basic recipe for happiness–through meaningfulness, intimacy, and virtue–and by defining and illuminating each concept spiritually, practically, and–sometimes–poetically, the author helps us to appreciate the fundamentals of a life lived to the very full–that answers all the deepest desires of the human heart.

The book includes one of the most fascinating bibliographies I have ever seen (my “buy” list is substantial), and closes with a strong chapter called, “Approaching Divinity.” One of my favorite comments utilizes the image of the wedding feast, with Christ as the groom:

Through these longings, God gets down on one knee and holds out–not a ring–but his Sacred Heart. He is proposing to make you whole, and to show you how you can live in his love for all eternity. He is asking you if you would do him the honor of letting him fulfill your deepest desires so that you will never want for anything again, and so that you can discover how to love yourself the way he loves you. (p. 182)

This extraordinary resource is newly released today!

I highly recommend Broken Gods: Hope, Healing, and the Seven Longings of the Human Heart, by Gregory K. Popcak, Ph.D. (Image Books)

For more help, support and information, contact Dr. Popcak’s organization, Pastoral Solutions Institute. To make an appointment to speak with a counselor, call 740-266-6461, or check out his website, www.CatholicCounselors.com.

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