Posted November 3, 2016 in Faith, Reading, Review / 0 Comments
Fearless by
Sonja Corbitt Publisher: Ave Maria Press (2016 - November 4)
eARC (256 pages)
Via: NetGalley Rating: Reading Challenges: Read 2016 Synopsis
What are the sources of anxiety, stress, and fear you experience in your life? Popular Catholic speaker and author Sonja Corbitt believes that these often-paralyzing emotions are the direct result of our everyday battles against sin and temptation. In Fearless, she equips us with the spiritual tools we need to restore our spiritual well-being.
The term “spiritual warfare” conjures images of heavenly battles between archangels and demons, but Sonja Corbitt insists that there is a realm of spiritual warfare that is more domestic than it is cosmic—in the trenches of dirty bathrooms, fighting children, irritable spouses, the struggle to stop smoking or overeating, crazy schedules, and overwhelming workloads.
In her new book, the author of Unleashed takes us deep into scripture and the spiritual practices of the Church in order to show us how to resist the avalanche of temptations that can threaten us and lead to paralyzing anxiety and fear. Through her powerful personal story and teaching, Corbitt shows us how to put on the armor of Christ and learn to live fearlessly, love with abandon, and embrace life with confidence.
In Unleashed, Corbitt identified the spiritual wounds that reveal themselves through the harmful patterns and relationships in our lives.
In Fearless, she offers scriptural tools that help us understand and conquer the demons of sin, Satan, self, and sloth. She helps us recognize the methods the devil uses to keep us enslaved and she immerses us in a profound contemplation of love, which is the only possible weapon against the spirit of fear.
In this book you will come to understand
the spiritual roots of fear, depression, and anxiety;
ways to “abide” in Christ and find freedom from fear;
signs of negative spiritual suggestion and influence in your daily life;
the deep, personal lies we believe that keep us slaves to fear;
specific truths about the limitations of Satan’s power and character;
the “pieces” of spiritual armor that protect us from fear; and
how to rest fully in God’s goodness and love.
Each chapter contains features that will make it a popular resource for personal and group study: review notes, an invitation to prayer, and a series of probing questions (called God Prompts) that encourage you to explore the content in a deeply personal way.
Fearless offers encouragement to those who are anxious or fearful about the future and who seek a spiritual solution.
Find the book: Goodreads, Amazon, Book Depository
Read More
Tagged as 4 star, Read 2016
Posted March 10, 2016 in Faith, Reading, Review / 0 Comments
One Ordinary Sunday by
Paula Huston Publisher: Ave Maria Press (2016 - March 11)
eARC (256 pages)
Via: NetGalley Rating: Reading Challenges: Read 2015 Synopsis
The popular, award-winning writer Paula Huston draws on her spiritual wisdom and her talent as a novelist to provide both a moment-by-moment record of her experience of one particular Mass on one particular Sunday in her home parish in California and a theologically and historically rich exploration of the origin and meaning of the liturgy.
For Catholics, the Mass is the “source and summit of the Christian life,” as the documents of the Church put it. Yet many Catholics might confess to not understand in any depth what goes on in an “ordinary” celebration of the Eucharist. In perhaps her most compelling and original book to date, novelist and spiritual writer Paula Huston guides us through a Mass on the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time at her home parish in Arroyo Grande, California. Huston’s personal and spiritual reflections offer fresh and often unexpected insights into the profound mystery at the heart of the Catholic faith.
A natural storyteller, Huston deftly illuminates what might seem either mysterious to those unfamiliar with the Mass or overly familiar to those who have lost an appreciation of its mystery. In the Mass “we are healed and restored and spiritually fed,” she writes. “We are handed strong armor against evil. We are unified and made whole as a people and as a Church. We get a little taste of heaven.”
Find the book: Goodreads, Amazon, Book Depository
Read More
Tagged as 5 star, Catholic, Catholic Book, Read 2015, You Read How Many Books Challenge
Posted February 25, 2016 in Reading, Review / 0 Comments
Lord of the World by
Robert Hugh Benson Publisher: Ave Maria Press (2016 - original 1907)
eARC (352 pages)
Via: NetGalley Rating: Reading Challenges: Read 2015 Synopsis
In an airplane news conference on his return from the Philippines in January 2015, Pope Francis mentioned Robert Hugh Benson’s Lord of the World and said, “I advise you to read it.” It wasn’t the first time the Holy Father had praised the book since becoming pope. This 1907 futuristic narrative has been hailed as the finest work of this unsung, but influential author and son of the Archbishop of Canterbury whose conversion to Catholicism rocked the Church of England in 1903. The compelling book includes a new introduction, a biography of Benson, and a theological reflection.
Popular young adult books such as The Hunger Games and Divergent, as well as literary classics such as Walker Percy’s Love in the Ruins and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, have created a growing interest in dystopian novels. In one of the first such novels of the twentieth century, Robert Hugh Benson imagines a world where belief in God has been replaced by secular humanism. Lord of the World describes a world where Catholics are falling away and priests and bishops are defecting. Only a small remnant of the faithful remains. Julian Falsenburg, a mysterious and compelling figure arises, promising peace in exchange for blind obedience. Those who resist are subjected to torture and execution. Soon the masses are in Falsenburg’s thrall and he becomes leader of the world. Into this melee steps the novel’s protagonist, Fr. Percy Franklin. Dauntless and clear-sighted, Franklin is a bastion of stability as the Catholic Church in England disintegrates around him. Benson’s harrowing plot soon brings these two charismatic men into a final apocalyptic conflict.
With an imagination to rival H. G. Wells and theological insight akin to G. K. Chesterton, Benson’s astute novel has captured the attention of many today, including Popes Benedict and Francis. This new edition makes it easily available and features an insightful introduction by Rev. Mark Bosco, S.J., a brief biography of Benson by Martyn Sampson, and a theological reflection by Rev. Michael Murphy, S.J.
Find the book: Goodreads, Amazon
Read More
Tagged as 5 star, All Time Favorites, Catholic, Catholic Book, NetGalley, Pope Francis, Read 2015, You Read How Many Books Challenge
Posted May 4, 2015 in Faith, Reading, Review / 4 Comments
Arriving At Amen by
Leah Libresco Publisher: Ave Maria Press (2015)
eARC (192 pages)
Via: NetGalley Rating: Reading Challenges: Read 2015 Synopsis
A former atheist makes sense of Catholicism and learns to pray by relying on the rosary and the rumba, avoiding sin and the sunk cost fallacy, and finding communion along Cartesian coordinates.
Find the book: Goodreads
Read More
Tagged as 5 star, All Time Favorites, Catholic, Catholic Book, Catholic Connections, NetGalley, Read 2015, You Read How Many Books Challenge
Posted January 21, 2015 in Faith, Reading, Review / 0 Comments
A Book of Uncommon Prayer by
Brian Doyle Publisher: Ave Maria Press (2014)
eARC (128 pages)
Via: NetGalley Rating: Reading Challenges: 2015 Alphabet Soup,
Read 2015 Synopsis
Acclaimed, award-winning essayist and novelist Brian Doyle—whose writing, in the words of Mary Oliver, is “a gift to us all”—presents one hundred new prayers that evoke his deep Catholic belief in the mystery and miracle of the ordinary (and the whimsical) in human life.
In Brian Doyle’s newest work, A Book of Uncommon Prayer: 100 Celebrations of the Miracle & Muddle of the Ordinary, his readers will find a series of prayers unlike any of the beautiful, formal, orthodox prayers of the Catholic tradition or the warm, extemporized prayers heard from pulpits and dinner tables. Doyle’s often-dazzling, always-poignant prayers include eye-opening hymns to shoes and faith and family. In Doyle’s words, “the world is crammed with miracles, so crammed and tumultuous that if we stop, see, savor, we are agog,” and the pages of his newest book give voice and body to this credo. By focusing on experiences that may seem the most unprayerful (one prayer is titled “Prayer on Seeing Yet Another Egregious Parade of Muddy Paw Prints on the Floor”), he gives permission to discover the joys and treasures in what he often calls the muddle of everyday life.
Find the book: Goodreads, Amazon, Book Depository
Read More
Tagged as 5 star, Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge, Catholic, Catholic Book, NetGalley, Read 2015, You Read How Many Books Challenge
