I’ve had this book read and sitting on my desk, reminding me to write a review for it for a couple of days now. I’ve been chewing it over, thinking about it – it’s a fantastic book, first off. Mr. Janaro writes his testimony of suffering (Lyme Disease + depression + obsessive compulsive disorder) in the light of God’s Mercy. I can relate to him on the depression front – I’ve been off and on medications for it and I think of depression as something that will always follow me around.

The book has short chapters, and the voice of Mr. Janaro changes throughout the book. Some chapters are full of short sentences with not much elaborating, others are fully elaborated and explained. Meditations and prayers are interspersed throughout the book. He writes about Lyme Disease, his depression, the OCD – how it affects his life from his job to his family. It’s hard for me to imagine Lyme Disease, but I think I have a pretty good understanding of it thanks to Mr. Janaro’s reflections.

The book is not a pity party by any means. It’s a beautiful song of praise to God for His Mercy – sharing in His Suffering, understanding His Mother, and of course; the beauty of the Sacrament of the Eucharist. I love how Mr. Janaro writes about why he keeps going instead of despairing and the truth of faith, hope, and love for the Christian means that there is something more … something beyond physical pain and mental torments. It’s so easy to forget that, especially in the midst of deep or extended suffering, and Mr. Janaro’s book is a great reminder to keep our eyes on God, even in the middle of suffering.

The brevity of the book doesn’t mean that it’s an easy read. It is, in the sense that it’s not a giant exegesis of Suffering and Mercy; but it isn’t in the sense that there is so much contained in this book to be digested, thought upon, reflected on, meditated with – I know I’ll be re-reading it when Little One is born and I’m caught in the throws of post-partum recovery, lack of sleep, and making sure Elise has one on one time with me. I want to loan this book to my mom when she’s recovering from her brain surgery (Deep Brain Stimulation as a treatment for Parkinson’s, if anyone’s curious), because I know she has had her own set of suffering, beyond anything I can comprehend. I want to loan this book out to a lot of people, really.

This review was written as part of the Catholic book Reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Never Give Up – My Life and God’s Mercy . I was provided with a free copy of the book in exchange for my honest opinion of the book.

Courageous Generosity: A Bible Study for Women on Heroic Sacrifice by Stacy Mitch comes to me at a perfect time. I just finished the Bible study this morning, and I’m impressed.

While I grew up Protestant, I was a naughty Protestant and never did any kind of Bible study or anything like that. Therefore, I don’t have the extensive Scriptural background that Protestants typically do. Finding good, Catholic Bible studies has been on my radar for a while.

This Bible study is part of Stacy Mitch’s Courageous series, which includes Courageous Love: A Bible study on Holiness for Women, Courageous Virtue: A Bible study on Moral Excellence for Women, and Courageous Women: A Bible study on the Heroines of Biblical History. I like her approach of taking a topic, such as Holiness or Biblical Heroines and showing how Scriptures discuss it. It’s almost the opposite of taking a bunch of Scriptures and finding a theme in them.

There are tons of Biblical references and references to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, so one can be assured that there is solid Catholic teaching in the study. I found myself challenged and convicted as I worked through Courageous Generosity, as well as finding things inside of myself that may be holding me back from God, or from authentic love of my neighbor. But I don’t feel like I’m the Worst Person Ever, just grateful that I had this tool to shine a light in some nooks and crannies of my soul.

In addition to finding ’spiritual weeds’, I also have gained a new appreciation for Sacred Scripture. My biggest problem is that I often read the Bible, but usually as a book and don’t give myself time to really digest what I’m reading, or reading it for different meanings (literal, allegorical, moral, or anagogical). So, I’m happy to have discovered how to read the Bible beyond reading it like a book. I have plenty of other books for that.

The Bible study is broken into eight lessons: Courageous Generosity, Sacrifice, Prayer, Family Life (Matrimony), Family Life (Children), Love Thy Neighbor, Work and Money, Evangelization. The questions asked throughout the book have an answer key in the back, which is always a nice thing to have when I’m having those “am I just way off base here?” moments. At the end of each lesson is a short Bible verse to be memorized and meditated on – I’m still pondering the verse from the first lesson : Joshua 1:5b,7a.

One giant review later, my take-home message is such: this is a great Bible study for women who (like me) don’t have every verse of the Scriptures memorized or who like a topical approach to looking at the Bible. It’s deeper than what I was expecting, but not in that way that requires a degree; and is surprisingly uncomfortable at times (finding those spiritual weeds definitely hurts!), bu a great tool to utilize to live more authentically and grow closer to God.

—
This review was written as part of the Catholic book Reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Courageous Generosity – A Bible Study for Women. I received a free copy of the book to review in exchange for my honest review.

If anyone thinks that I like any and all books that I read, here’s the review you’ve been waiting for: I did not like this book, period. I had high hopes that I would like it, but it never really worked for me.

My biggest and chief complaint is that Ms. Callahan makes the assertation that “Christians call God Our Mother because God, like a mother, gives us life and love – and also leaves us free to grow into our own strength” (p. 71). Uhm, which Christians? Maybe I’m running with the wrong crowd because I’ve heard that God is LIKE a mother, but never “Our Mother” and I surely have NEVER heard any public prayers addressed to “God Our Mother” like are found in the book. I prefer to stick with Our Lord and refer to God as Our Father. I’m with Fr. Serpa on this one:

“God the Father and God the Holy Spirit are pure spirit. God the Son took on human flesh as a man. He is our only way to the Father. He has revealed the Father not only as “Father,” but as “Abba” or “Daddy”. Why has Jesus revealed the Father as “Father”? Why has He revealed Him at all? Who are we to question God? We can surmise that God is spirit and therefore has no gender. However, God CONNOT be just as well spoken of as mother because He has revealed Himself as “Father”. Does not His prerogative matter more to us than our surmising?

Our ontological understanding has no primacy in the face of Divine Revelation! Our ontological understanding is so minuscule in the face of the Author of all created being that in itself it is laughable. “Father” is not the gender distinction WE have applied to God; it is the gender distinction GOD has applied to Himself!”
(source)

I wish there were more citations in this book. Many times I was left wondering “is this a fact that I can look up or is this her opinion?”

There were some good things however, such as the entire chapter on Mothering (well, except for the God Our Mother business) and the chapter on Working (whether at home or not). I also wish she got a little more deep on her topics. Maybe omitting some of the topics and focusing deeper on Mothering and Love and Sexuality. As a woman, I know that woman’s approach to God is so different from that of a man, but I don’t want to read about ‘God Our Mother’ or just the surface of topics that are important to me. This book was what I feared – a light, airy survey of “women’s issues” without a real depth or substance to them. Ironically, I’ve found books on women’s spirituality written by men a lot more engaging and deep.

If I were to recommend this book, it’d be to people who are strong in their faith; who can take what’s good out of it and leave the rest. I think Ms. Callahan has a lot of good insights that she just isn’t sharing, or doesn’t want to flesh out. I wish she would have.

And drop the “God Our Mother” stuff.

—-
This review was written as part of the Catholic book Reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Creating New Life, Nurturing Families. I received nothing but a complementary copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion of the book.

I’ve had this trilogy since our trip to California (so, the beginning of September), and finished it last night. Usually, I’m a quick reader, but there was something about these three books that really slowed me down.

They weren’t boring.
They weren’t over my head.
They also weren’t dumbed down.
They’re not long thousands of pages long, either.

Mark Shea, the author of the books has a very different writing style than anyone I’ve read, and that’s what slowed me down. These books were like having a very animated conversation with him about Our Lady, with him showing Evangelical thought process and Catholic explanation without condescending Evangelicals or making Catholicism elitist. His balance is remarkable, and I would expect that a good number of Evangelicals could read these books without feeling threatened or like they were going to get thrown to the wolves, or made to feel like they’re stupid (because they’re not, after all).

The point of these books is to unpack the Catholic Church’s place of Mary – showing from Sacred Scripture things like the Immaculate Conception and her Perpetual Virginity. He unpacks and explains Marian devotion, the development of Marian doctrine, and just Mary in general in a way I’ve never encountered before. I would put these books on my ever-growing “must read for people who are thinking about converting!” list, especially for people like yours truly who had and still has remnants of “Maryphobia” from growing up.

I learned a great deal from these books – beyond what I already believe and accept about Our Lady. Some of the more interesting parts of the books was discussing the various heresies attacking Our Lord and how Marian doctrines actually reinforce a belief about Our Lord (both God and Man, born of a Virgin, fully God and fully Man, what He has laid out for us in Heaven, etc).

If you’re looking for a great Christmas present (I know, it’s the middle of October) for you or someone you know, I’d recommend these books.

This review was written as part of the Catholic book Reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Mary, Mother of the Son 3 Volume Set. I received a complimentary copy of the trilogy in exchange for my honest review.

Allow me to give a backstory to this review: I received this book by Mike Aquilina in the mail on Saturday. I started reading it at 9pm, and by 11am Mass today, I had finished it. And that includes time to sleep, eat, bathe, and so on.

I really had a hard time putting this book down. I’ve never read anything by Mr. Aquilina before, but I was surprisingly captivated by the book. Not surprisingly, it’s all about Christian symbols (the fish, the cross, the dolphin, etc) and how they came to be used in Christianity, and where there roots are, such as pagan and Jewish traditions. I learned an awful lot on the symbols I’m used to seeing, and I saw Mass in a different light because of it. Monsignor has a chi ro on the back of his vestments. There’s a chi ro with a crown flanked by two olive branches in the nave of our Church. I knew that the chi ro is for Our Lord of course, but they knowing the history really helped me see things differently. Interestingly enough, our Church has a TON of little Crosses that I never really opened my eyes to see.

The chapters range from short to medium in length, and I think Mr. Aquilina and the illustrator, Lea Marie Ravotti did enough justice to the symbols without overkill or Deep Overwhelming Theology. Each chapter discusses a symbol – the common ones like the cross, the fish to the more uncommon ones, like the peacock, the dolphin, the ankh. I was reading bits and pieces to Greg in the form of trivia and it’s really astonishing how little we both knew about the symbols around us.

If I had the money, I would buy multiple copies of this book and give it out to everyone I knew. It’s broad enough without being watered down, it is narrow enough without missing the point or giving Boring Details That Are Irrelevant. It would be perfect in an “Introduction to Christianity” type college course, or even a nice “welcome to the Church!” gift to converts and reverts. I highly recommend this book.

This review was written as part of the Catholic book Reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Signs and Mysteries.

Let’s get away from the anxiety and move on to something I really love: books.

At first glance, I thought this book was solely an apologetics book. I mean, the title sounds like it should be, right? I was totally surprised once I started reading the book that it’s not entirely apologetics based at all. It’s about Scripture. And praying Scripture. And using Scripture to give you Light in your life, and hope. Considering the last week, I need a book like this.

This book, I would put on my list of “life changing books”. Seriously? Seriously. The only other books on that (short) list is Archbishop Sheen’s autobiography, the Holy Rule of St. Benedict, and of course, Sacred Scripture. There is so much meat in this little book, but not sending anyone into the deep throes of theology. Patrick Madrid (who I’m slowly becoming a fangirl for) offers short and sweet meditations, applications, and just general thoughts on verses from Scripture. And he doesn’t all pick the feel good Scriptures, either. He devotes an entire chapter to ‘Death, Judgement, Heaven, and Hell’. Who feels good about Hell? Considering many people think Hell doesn’t exist, it is refreshing to see Hell talked about – with Scriptural backup (ta da! Apologetics!).

Even though there are some heavy topics in the book (like, Hell); I found it overall very inspiring. It’s a tour of Sacred Scripture, without distraction. I want to re-read this book many more times, because I know I’ll pick up so much more on subsequent read through.

Despite coming from a Protestant background, we never read the Sacred Scriptures, nor was it encouraged. And even though I’ve been a Catholic only three years, and have done more reading of Scriptures since then; I know I’m just scratching the surface. This book was a tremendous help for me – and I think it’s good for people like me (who don’t have an extensive Scripture background) but also for people who do have an extensive Scriptural background. The target audience is for the former, but I truly believe there’s something here for everyone, at every level of familiarity with Sacred Scripture.

This review was written as part of the Catholic book Reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on 150 Bible Verses Every Catholic Should Know.

One of the under-developed themes of my blog is the issue of modesty. Pre-conversion I can say that I dressed pretty floozy like, and had no problems “dressing for attention”. Since my conversion, marriage, and birth; I’ve reigned my dressing in to something considerably more modest than how I was dressing.

Colleen Hammond’s book has popped up on several websites dealing with modesty, sometimes good and sometimes bad. I’ve come across her book mentioned while studying about modesty, but never had an opportunity until now to read it.

I’ll admit it – I really like this book. Her writing style is rough around the edges – I think she could do a much better job of making different themes flow together and be more cohesive than she has them in her book. It’s not that she skips around or anything, but I see Mrs. Hammond as having a lot of information to tell and she just can’t wait to get it all out. So, she states an idea, expands for a couple pages, then goes onto a similar idea. She, in essence, is doing what my professors called a “data dump”. I’m reminded of my Earth Science Writing professor who was so frustrated with me for the semester because I basically did a data dump while writing about gas hydrates. Mrs. Hammond also drops her citations tremendously in Chapters 3 and 4 – which is unfortunate, as that’s dealing with the history of fashion and the Church’s response to the changing fashions. The citations are there, but not as often as in the first two chapters. Something that was drilled into my head in University was always over-cite, never under-cite. It’s hard keeping the momentum up and looking up material, but it really shows you’re doing your research and adds to your credibility.

While I don’t fall into the “women wearing pants is forbidden” camp, I do fall into the “gee, I like to look like a woman so I wear skirts every day” camp. In addition to the history of fashion and the Church’s response to various challenges to modesty; the book also mentions another aspect of femininity – behavior. It doesn’t make sense to wear skirts and dresses if you walk like a moose. I know, because I do walk like a moose. She includes a suggested modest checklist, discussing various ways you can have wardrobe malfunctions and how to combat them.

I think Mrs. Hammond should stay on top of the modesty challenges of today, the Church’s response to them (be it through the Saints, Popes, documents, etc) and release newer editions of her book as time marches forward. It took me 1 day – with Elise – to read this book, so it’s not like it’s laden down with Big Heavy Theology. This book will most likely fall into the “will read again” pile that I have going (and growing).

This review was written as part of the Catholic book Reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Dressing With Dignity.

As you may (or may not) know, I’m a total “Sheeniac”. I guess one would say that I have a (big) devotion to the good Archbishop. I think I’ll forego mentioning my special connection with him – unless someone out there is interested.

Anyways.

This CD is reflections by Archbishop Sheen on Our Lord’s Passion and Resurrection. At first, I was kind of leary as it says on the package “Narrated by Matthew Arnold”. I thought it would be Mr. Arnold reading Archbishop Sheen’s words, but it’s not. Mr. Arnold offers an introduction on the good Archbishop, reads the appropriate Bible verses, and offers listeners where to find more Archbishop Sheen at the end of the CD. I don’t know what translation is used for the verses – the packaging says “the traditional Catholic Translation of the Bible” – which to me means “Douay-Rheims”. But, since it’s not explicitly stated, I can’t say it is. There’s music in the background which actually isn’t as distracting as I was anticipating it to be. It kind of helped me focus in on Archbishop Sheen’s words.

The format is a reading from the Bible – such as the Last Supper, followed by Archbishop Sheen’s thoughts on that particular part of Our Lord’s Passion (so, his reflections and insight on the Last Supper, if we follow the example). The entire CD isn’t very long, but not overly short. There are many nuggets worth thinking about offered by Archbishop Sheen, such as pointing out that Our Lord refers to His Death as His Hour, and His Resurrection as His Day – thus, evil may last an hour, but glory lasts a day – glory always lasts longer than evil.

The audio is great, although it at times sounds like Archbishop Sheen is talking on the phone, but considering that these recordings were most likely done when he was younger (he did in 1979, I would estimate these were originally recorded in the 50’s); you can clearly understand what’s saying. So no big problems there.

I would recommend this CD for anyone who has a devotion to Archbishop Sheen, as well as for people who may not have a deep grasp on the Passion and Resurrection and just what that means. What Our Lord’s death and Resurrection really accomplished. There’s no way over your head theology, but not so broken down that the Mystery and Sacredness is lost.

Find out more information on The True Meaning of Easter (CD) and a link to purchase this CD over at the The Catholic Company.

Let’s change gears here and talk about something sexy. Like, sex for example. As a Catholic, most of the drama I get from people who need a reason to attack the Church is Her stance on sex, marriage, and all the fun that that entails. Since Greg and I will be raising Elise and prayerfully more babies in an entirely sex-saturated culture; we want to really make sure we know the reasoning why the Church teaches what She does. And of course, for apologetics; but our family comes first.

Robert Fastiggi is a professor at Sacred Heart Major Seminary. At first, I thought this book was going to be boring, thick, dense. I was really surprised that it was pretty slim (about 150 pages). My next thought was “great, it’s watered down”. It’s not. Fastiggi discusses an aspect of Catholic sexual morality relevant to the world today, such as pre-marital sex, contraception, co-habitation, homosexuality, pornography, and masturbation, just to name a few. He gently, but firmly explains the Church’s position on each issue as well as WHY She teaches it and WHY it’s important to follow it. As an ex-boyfriend of mine once said about the Catholic Church: “the ‘rules’ are there to protect you. When you break them, expect to be hurt.” And he wasn’t even Catholic! Fastiggi expounds on what the consequences of things like pre-marital sex and co-habitation. He uses Scripture, Tradition, and papal documents as his sources, which the post University “cite EVERYTHING” uber-nerd in me loves.

One of the things that surprised me was that Fastiggi included a section about marital chastity and Natural Family Planning (NOT the “rhythm method”, as anti-Catholics would have you believe), as well as celibacy in priests and religious. Most people think that sexual morality is left at the altar or the bedroom door; but we are all called to chastity, regardless of our station in life. Some people, like priests and nuns, are called to a much different aspect of chastity than say, Greg and I are.

This book appears to be targeted for some teenagers through young adults. Some topics in the book get very adult, and may not be appropriate for all audiences. But if you’re squicky about anything in this book, then that’s a very good indication that you’re probably going to get extremely squicked out by sex. If you wanted to delve deep into Catholic sexual morality, it would be much, much longer; but I think Fastiggi does an excellent job on explaining the reasons behind what the Church teaches, without coming off condescending, prudish, or anything like that.

Would I give this book to Elise when she’s old enough? Absolutely. I think it’s a great introduction to Christopher West’s “The Good News About Sex and Marriage” or John Paul II’s collection of lectures of the Theology of the Body.

This review was written as part of the Catholic book Reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on What the Church Teaches About Sex.