Book Review: A Catholic Christmas

Occasionally I will pick up a book and within the first few pages I'll stumble across something that sticks out as inaccurate and I either fixate on it or have a very difficult time getting past it.  This was and has been the case for me with regards to A Catholic Christmas.The book claims that Advent is part of the Christmas season.  Based on every other book I've read regarding Advent and Christmas as well as the curriculum I teach and have taught from over the past four years, Advent and Christmas are their own seasons in the liturgical calendar.

If you can get past the claims that Advent is part of Christmas (which it isn't despite whether you are looking at the ordinary or extraordinary Church calendars) then you'll find a nice little book that takes you on the highlight tour of feast days during Advent and Christmas.  There's also a chapter on the origins of Christmas and another on the liturgical year.  The chapter on the liturgical year irritated me with it's claims that Lent/Easter were a season, but admitted later that the Triduum was also a season on it's own.  Personally, I'd skip that chapter if you pick up this book.

Based on the explanations of the feast days in the chapters that follow, I would say this book is best suited to someone who is unfamiliar with the more popular feast days during Advent and Christmas.  The author assumes that her readers will not know who the Immaculate Conception is, which while she's probably not off base for the majority of Catholics, well catechized Catholics may feel that chapter is a bit on the condescending side.

Overall, A Catholic Christmas isn't a bad book, but you won't find me giving it a high recommendation.

I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book by the publisher, St. Anthony Messenger Press, in exchange for my honest review.  You can take a A Catholic Christmas. this book by visiting Amazon.com.

Book Review: Saint Anthony of Padua

St. Anthony of Padua: His Life, Legends, and Devotions edited by Friar Jack Wintz is a collection of articles on this popular saint.  The most of articles came from past issues of St. Anthony Messenger magazine and a few chapters were written specifically for this book.  This volume is actually an expanded revision of Saint Anthony of Padua: The Story of his Life and Popular Devotions.

St. Anthony is one of those saints who I frequently am asking for his intercession, but I really knew very little about him outside the fact that he's the patron saint of finding lost things.  After reading this book I feel like I know this old friend of mine much better.

This book is separated into five parts:  A portrait of St. Anthony, which covers his life.  The Legends of St. Anthony, which takes a look at some of the legends surrounding him and the reasons for the symbolism frequently depicted in paintings and statues of him.  St. Anthony, the Contemplative which discusses his hideaways and contemplative life. Praying to St. Anthony, which looks at popular devotions, tracing his footsteps and a lovely novena. And finally, a section on the shrines of St. Anthony.

I enjoyed this book and felt like I really got to know so much more about St. Anthony from reading this book.  I learned things about St. Anthony that I never thought much about before.  I feel like I met my sainted friend for the first time after having read this book.

Now because this book is a compilation of articles on St. Anthony from various authors, there is a bit of redundancy here and there.  In one chapter you may read about an aspect of his life only to find another blurb about it in a later chapter.  If the book wasn't a compilation of articles, I'd think the author was a bit scatterbrained at times, but given the nature of the book, I don't think it's much of an issue.  It's just something that caught my attention here and there while I read the book.

Overall, I'd say this is a pretty good book for getting to know this popular saint.

I was provided with a review copy of this book by the publisher, St. Anthony Messenger Press, in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: Pete and Repeat

A copy of Pete and Repeatshowed up at my house just as we were heading out to lunch one afternoon, so I brought it along to see what the kids thought of this "Can you spot the differences?" book.  Those of you who subscribe to St. Anthony Messenger Magazine are likely familiar with Pete and Repeat, but for those who aren't, this series is an awful lot like the comic strip pictures where you are asked to find the differences between the two pictures.

My girls had a lot of fun trying to find all eight differences found between the two pictures.  I was surprised at how engrossed they were in looking at this little pocket sized book.  The book features fifty-two of these puzzles.  Each puzzle has a little eight lined poem that goes with the picture.  The first verse changes with each picture and the second one is the same throughout the book.

The picture puzzles certainly offer a challenge for both young and old.  While my girls were able to find all of the differences on some of the puzzles, there are still many more that neither they nor my husband or I have been able to find all eight differences.  That means the girls are still coming back to this book over and over trying to find all the differences.  For people like me who get a bit frustrated when they can't figure out what's different, the book offers an answer key in the back.

What I like about this book is it's small enough to tuck inside a purse or diaper bag so that it can be pulled out to entertain children when it's needed.  The kids have enjoyed spotting the differences.  It's certainly worth getting if you can use a quiet activity book that's easily stored in a bag or your glove compartment for when you are on the go.

I was provided with a review copy of Pete and Repeatby the publisher, St. Anthony Messenger Press, in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: Rediscover Lent

As Lent rapidly approaches, I've been paging through a few books focused on Lent to decide what I'll be reading.  One of the books to hit my review pile is Matthew Kelly's Rediscover Lent.  This particular book is focused on inspiring you to come to know your Catholic faith better.

Like many Lenten books, Rediscover Lent has a section for each day of Lent.  For people like me who like to devour books, a format such as this forces the reader to take things slowly and ruminate the message for each day.  Each daily entry contains scripture readings (you'll need your bible for these), a reflection, a meditation and a prayer.  Using this book as a daily Lenten resource will require about ten minutes of your time, but you may find yourself pondering the daily meditation throughout the day.

Overall, I think this is a decent book and I most certainly would have been turning to this book throughout Lent if I hadn't found a different book that resonated with me better.

I was provided with a review copy of Rediscover Lent by the publisher, St. Anthony Messenger Press in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: Friar Jack's Favorite Prayers

A little while back, I had the opportunity to read Friar Jack's Favorite Prayers.  In this book Friar Jack Wintz introduces us to his favorite prayers and lets us in on what makes those prayers resonate with him.  At first glance, you might wonder why someone would want to read a book about another person's favorite prayers.  I wondered that myself as I began to read this book and I quickly found that there was more to this book than just a Franciscan friar writing about the prayers he likes best.

One of the things that struck me when reading this book was Friar Jack's take on many traditional, well-known prayers.  While some of what he had to say didn't necessarily resonate with me at first, I found over time that much of what he had to say came to make a lot of sense in the months after I had read the book.

In the beginning of this book, Friar Jack gives a brief tour of the different types of prayer and discusses how they all help to lead us closer to God.  He also shares an important bit of wisdom as to why each of us should find the type of prayer that helps us to "tune in" the best.  Having read that, it helped me to not feel so bad when I'd come across a favorite prayer of his in this book that simply didn't resonate with me one bit.

As with any book that gives a reflection on a well known prayer, you're likely to find that maybe you don't agree with the author's take.  There were a few prayers where Friar Jack's take on it was very different from other explanations I had read in the past.  At first glance I'd be caught off guard.  In many instances, after taking a little time to ponder what he had to say much of it would make sense and as I mentioned already, after more time had passed I found many of his reflections to seem deeper than I had previously thought.  Overall, I found the book to be an insightful read.

I was provided with a complimentary review copy of Friar Jack's Favorite Prayers by the publisher, St. Anthony Messenger Press, in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: Staying Faithful Today

I think I have yet to read anything written by Fr. Alfred McBride that I didn't enjoy immensely.  This is certainly true of his book Staying Faithful Today.  In this book, Fr. McBride examines why we need fidelity, and how we already have it from God.

This book beautifully presents and explains the many facets of our lives, whether we're single, married, or living as clergy or religious.  No matter what your station in life, there's certainly a need for fidelity.  Over the course of seven chapters readers will discover what fidelity looks like, they will see how God is faithful to us, and come to an understanding as to why fidelity is so important to essentially every aspect of our lives.

The entire book is insightfully written and keeps you turning pages.  The book is suitable for reading in a group setting or on your own.  At the end of every chapter there are questions for personal application, questions for use in a group setting, a scripture meditation and a blank page where you can record your own promises for ways in which you can be faithful to or supportive of those examined in each individual chapter.

This book was an enjoyable and informative read.  It's certainly worth reading.

I was provided with a review copy of this book by the publisher, St. Anthony Messenger Press, in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: Catholic Update Guide To The Mass

The Catholic Update series of books published by St. Anthony Messenger Press is a new series that seeks to offer solid catechesis on a variety of subjects.  The books in this series are suitable for use in individual or group settings, and could be quite useful with RCIA.

The Catholic Update Guide To The Mass covers the questions of "What is the Mass?", "Why do we go to Mass?" and "How do we go to Mass?".  The book offers good solid answers to these questions and as such, is a good jumping off point for those who are new to the Catholic faith or simply want a short book to read that will sufficiently cover the bases.

Each of the three chapters in this book offer questions for reflection at the end of the chapter.  This feature makes it ideal for a group setting since it has built in discussion questions.

I think as a basic introduction to the Mass this book is pretty good.  It's relatively short at forty-three pages long and can easily be read in a short period of time.

As with the Catholic Update Guide To Confession, I found parts of this book to seem a bit liberal, particularly the explanations of the Mass itself.  This is likely not the book for you if you are looking for a book that is going to take a deep look at the Mass.

I was provided with a review copy of this book by the publisher, St. Anthony Messenger Press, in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: Catholic Update Guide To Confession

Confession is that sacrament that many Catholics either pretend does not exist, or they try to celebrate it as infrequently as possible.  All too often I find myself talking to people who exclaim "Oh, I haven't gone to confession in years!" whenever it's mentioned in conversation.  I can't help but wonder sometimes if that's due to a lack of understanding of the sacrament.

In the Catholic Update guide to Confession title, readers curious about the sacrament of reconciliation will find plenty of information regarding why we celebrate this sacrament, how to prepare for it, how to celebrate the sacrament,  as well as insight from priests who have been on both sides of the confessional screen.  The book is less than fifty pages and could easily be read on a lazy afternoon.  It would make a useful guide book for those currently in RCIA, or those who have been away from the sacrament for a while.

Overall, I thought the book was rather solid and offered practical advice and explanations.  I did, however, get the vibe every so often that opinions of the authors (the book is a compilation of information from previous publications of Catholic Update) we're not coming from a very conservative Catholic view point.  That said, I do feel that the book still has a lot to offer to those who are not very familiar or comfortable with the sacrament of reconciliation.

I was provided with a review copy of this book by the publisher, St. Anthony Messenger Press, in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: Wondrous Encounters

If you're looking for something to read this Lent, I've got a few suggestions to offer.  One of the books I'll be reading this lent is Fr. Richard Rohr's Wondrous Encounters: Scripture for Lent.  At first glance, you might look at this book and think it's going to be a bit earthy crunchy.  You might that is, if you're like me and begin to form opinions about books as soon as you see the cover.  Yes, I know, you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, but sometimes I see a cover and can't help but jump to conclusions.  However, it's a pretty cover, but it's one that instantly made me think about having to be outdoors. Thoughts like that simply don't win me over.  Fortunately once I opened the book, I was delighted to find that the author wasn't determined to take me for an outdoor tour through the wilderness of Lent.

This book contains a daily reflection for every day starting with Ash Wednesday and ending with Holy Saturday.  The reflections are based on the scripture readings for each day.  For each day, one of the readings is highlighted and presented with an explanation where necessary to help you gain a deeper understanding of what we should be grasping from that particular piece of scripture.  Following that, you will find a starter prayer to prompt you on your way to deeper reflection.  

I liked how the daily reflections bring a ray of clarity to readings that might not be easily understood.  I know at times I miss the intended point of some scripture passages during my first read through, and I found this book to be a nice help in gaining a better insight to the daily readings.

I realize that Lent begins tomorrow, but it's not too late to grab a copy of this book and benefit from reading it for the majority of Lent.  I'm looking forward to having this book be part of my daily Lenten reading.

If you plan on reading this book with a group St. Anthony Messenger Press also offers a handy study guide for this book.  You can access this study guide by clicking here.

I was provided with a complimentary review copy of this book by the publisher, St. Anthony Messenger Press, in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: Celebrating Saints and Seasons

I recently had the opportunity to review Jeanne Hunt's Celebrating Saints and Seasons: Hundreds of Activities for Catholic Children.  Generally speaking, I love books like this that compile a collection of ideas for how to help your child live their Catholic faith.  I was sincerely hopeful that this book would be yet another wonderful resource.  Sadly, I just wasn't all that impressed with this book.

This book is not just focused on celebrating Catholic feast days and traditions.  Instead, this book seeks to be all inclusive. I don't want to say that it's wrong to be all inclusive, )I certainly don't think it's a bad thing) but when I'm teaching my own children at home or a group of children in a religious education class  I don't feel there's a pressing need to teach them about other faith traditions.  I found several suggestions in this book, such as teaching children about Muslim holidays and teaching them about the five pillars of Islam that simply felt like an unnecessary push for liberal multiculturalism.  Why when I'm trying to make sure my young impressionable children are firmly grounded in their Catholic faith would I want to introduce them to and encourage them to celebrate holidays and traditions from other faith cultures?

The book is also focused on national holidays such as the Fourth of July,  and Martin Luther King Jr. day.  I thought it was rather interesting that no mention was made of Columbus Day in this book considering that Christopher Columbus was a Catholic explorer who's discovery of the Americas helped to spread Christianity to a large part of the world.  I simply don't understand why holidays like that were excluded while other's that have less significance in terms of our faith tradition were not.

In many ways I feel the book is poorly organized. For any given month you may find major holidays and feast days listed up front along with some ideas for how to celebrate them either with your family or in a school setting, and in other chapters you'll find nearly everything in date order with accompanying prayers that go with those celebrations at the end of the section for that month.  With a haphazard organizational structure such as this, it will be easy to miss things if you happen to use this book as a resource that you turn to for a particular day and look no further than the first page that deals with it.

Another beef I have with this book is it suggest some (not very many as one might expect) craft ideas but offers no illustrations for how the finished product should look.  The lack of illustrations is not too big of a deal, but it would have made the book a little better.  Most of the craft ideas are ones you could easily find with a quick online search.

I'm sure this book will be helpful to some, but I didn't find much [that was useful] inside it's covers that I haven't already seen in other books like it or online.  If I were asked for a suggestion of a good book filled with great ideas for how to live the liturgical year with your child or religious education class this book would not even make my top five suggestions.

I was provided with a complimentary review copy of this book by the publisher, St. Anthony Messenger Press, in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: Can You Find Saints?

Can You Find Saints? Introducing Your Child to Holy Men and Women is a great way to get young children interested in learning about the saints.  I recently had the pleasure of sharing this book with my children, ages 5 and 9, and they enjoyed searching out the hidden pictures and learning about a plethora of saints.

The book is richly illustrated and incredibly detailed.  It's sort of like a Catholic Where's Waldo or Look and Find book.  If you have children who are interested in books such as those, they will likely enjoy this book very much and learn about our Catholic faith at the same time.  As a mom, I love it when books combine fun and learning.

The book is comprised of thirteen picture searches.   In every picture there  are ten hidden pictures your child needs to find.  Some of the searches are easy and others are a little more challenging.  We've had this book for a few weeks now and we still haven't found all of the hidden pictures.  That's a good thing if you ask me, because it will not only keep children busy, but it will also serve to bring them back to the book over and over as they try to seek out all the hidden pictures.

Every search has a different theme.  One search is all about the Popes who have become saints,  another focuses on how saints are identified, while other searches are dedicated to saints who are listed in the Liturgy of the Mass or the Bible.

Within each search there is a list of specific things, actions or saints to seek out.  The book does a nice job at explaining what you are seeing in the picture.  The writing in the book is very approachable for young children.

To help you further explain the pictures to your children, a parent guide is provided for each picture.  I like the parent guides because they enumerate things that you should point out to your children as they look at the picture and find hidden objects.  They are sort of like a teacher's manual for the searches.

This book offer offers a lovely glossary that defines three pages worth of terms found throughout the book.  I find that to be quite a nice touch and I like knowing that my older daughter can sit with the book and look up any of the words for which she doesn't know the meaning.

Overall, I think this book is a lovely resource for faith formation.  It's a fun way for children to learn about the saints.  Children who have saint names can search this book to see if their patron saint is found among the crowds of saints packed onto every page of this book.  My daughters sat with this book for over an hour pouring over the names of the saints in the pictures looking for their own names, names of family members and their favorite saints.  They happily brought to book over to me every time they found a favorite saint, or one they thought seemed really cool or had an interesting name.

This book would make a lovely gift for the Catholic child in your life.  It could be a fun First Holy Communion gift, a baptism birthday gift, or even a really cool gift to put under the tree or in an Easter basket.

I was provided with a complimentary copy of Can You Find Saints? by the publisher, St. Anthony Messenger Press, in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: A Franciscan Christmas

Now that we're in the season of Advent, reading Kathleen M. Carroll's A Franciscan Christmas would be a lovely idea if you're looking to dig into some spiritually thought provoking material.  I was impressed with this little book.  I picked it up thinking it would be a mildly interesting book only to find myself surprised at how deep the book was.

In this book each element of the nativity scene is examined on it's own.  The ten chapter book looks at Jesus, Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the Magi, angels, villagers, musicians, the star and the animals.  From each of theses elements of the nativity scene there is a wealth of wisdom to be gleaned.  I was surprised at how deep the simple message of this book goes.  I particularly like how this book leads you to reflect on each aspect of the nativity and what you can learn from it in order to grow spiritually.

I think this is a lovely book to read during Advent to help orient your heart to where it belongs.  Because the message in each chapter is so profound, one could easily read a chapter, take a day or two to reflect on it and then move on to the next portion of the nativity.

I was provided with a complimentary review copy of this book by the publisher, St. Anthony Messenger Press, in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: Good Words

At first glance, I thought Good Words: Inspiration for Catholic Women seemed like a book that was lacking in depth.  I had paged though it and set it aside as something I'd pick up later.  It certainly wasn't the first, nor do I suspect it will be the last time I've underestimated a book after quickly thumbing through it.  When I finally found the time to sit down and read the book I had it in the back of my mind that I wasn't going to be impressed with it at all.  Most of the pages, after all, consisted of a short paragraph followed by a reflection.  Those reflections should have been my tip off that the book was not lacking in depth as I had initially supposed.

The book is centered upon Ecclesiastes 3:1-8:

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die, a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted, a time to kill, and a time to heal, a time to break down, and a time to week, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to throw away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.

This book breaks down the scripture referenced above and each part of this is focused upon with several reflections.  Each section begins with another scripture reference and a reflection.  Following that you will find excerpts from various books relating to a particular portion of Ecclesiastes 3:1-8.  Each excerpt and it's related reflection have their own subheading.

This book could be read from cover to cover with the reader spending a few minutes a day to read a reflection a day.  Using the book this way, one could easily spend a few months reflecting on the passages in this book. And there's certainly enough food for thought in this book to provide depth to your prayer life.  Alternatively, one could page through this book and find inspiration for where she happens to be in her life.  This would also be a great book for a women's prayer group to read and discuss. 

Overall, I was surprised at the inspirational punch this little book was able to provide.  The book certainly leaves you with plenty to think about.

I was provided with a review copy of this book by the publisher, St. Anthony Messenger Press, in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: Ask A Franciscan

Ask a Franciscan: Answers to Catholic Questions is a compilation of questions that readers of St. Anthony Messenger magazine have asked in the "Ask a Franciscan" column written by Pat McCloskey, O.F.M. The book, which is 113 pages, covers a broad range of topics.  Some of the questions are the kind that I've come to expect in question and answer books of this nature, but there were more than a handful of questions that I had not expected to see.

The book is comprised of eight chapters and contains nearly one hundred questions and answers.  Many of the answers refer the reader to further reading at designated sites online.  The topics covered in the chapters are: How We Understand God, How We Relate to Mary and the Other Saints, How We Read Scripture, How We Celebrate the Sacraments, How We Pray, How We Grow Morally, How We Grow in Faith and Practice It, and How We Experience Forgiveness and Redemption.  At the end of the book is a list of additional resources that interested readers may want to explore.

With the broad range of issues addressed in this book, I think this book can easily appeal to young and old and everyone in between.  Perhaps a question here or there may not apply to you or your unique situation, but there's something in this book for everyone.

I was provided with a complimentary review copy of this book by the publisher, St. Anthony Messenger Press, in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: Already There

I just had the pleasure of reading Fr. Mark Mossa's Already There Letting God Find You.  Does the title have you thinking to yourself "What?  God doesn't already know where I am?"  Well, yeah, He does unless maybe you have some stupendous ability to hide yourself from God or maybe you've got an invisibility cloak [which I'm pretty sure only exists in Harry Potter].  We can try to hide ourselves from God, but God does not hide himself from us and really, that's sort of the root of this book.  Fr. Mark essentially takes us on a journey and shows us that God is already there and waiting for us to engage.  In this book he helps us to see how God is present even when we might think he's not there or worse,  is just standing by watching us struggle.

Fr. Mark's approach to spirituality is rather unique.  He uses bits of pop culture to show us how we can deepen our faith lives.  He makes some connections that I'm not sure I'd have made on my own and others that I've noticed in the past.  Some of his pop culture references will have me looking at a few books and movies a little differently.  Of all the pop culture references he makes in this book, I think there was only one that I was not familiar with.  I suspect this book will resonate best with people in the 20-40 year old age range (I know, it seems like a big gap, but when you're smack in the middle of it, it doesn't seem that way.).

I liked how incredibly readable the book was.  While reading Already There I just got the feeling that I was hanging out with a good friend.  It's engaging, it's interesting, it's humorous and it has the ability to be life changing.

This book is not one that you just read for a couple of days and pop on the shelf.  Ideally, one would want to take their time with this book in order to reflect on a certain aspect of letting God find you, or rather letting yourself become open to a deeper relationship with God.  For the purpose of writing this review, I read this book over the course of a week which is a shorter time span than I anticipate needing to read this book a second time around.  It's truly a book that you'll want to mull over. Ordinarily I would zip through an easily read book such as this in the span of a day or two, but I took it easy because of the warning in the introduction not to rush through the book.  Having made myself the victim of spiritual indigestion in the past, I now take caution when there are warnings about rapid consumption.  And really, how can I push through to the next chapter when I come face to face with a chapter that tells me at the conclusion that "this would be a good moment to close the book and just pray in silence. The book's not going anywhere and neither is God."?  Since it was evening when I read that particular chapter I couldn't argue. As long as the kids were in bed the statement held some truth.  The book wasn't going to walk away (They have in the past, it's a problem that goes with the territory of having kids--things disappear and mysteriously no one is to blame.). Having read through the book at a moderate pace, I have to say that I truly believe that this book will reward those who read it slowly.

This review was written as part of the Catholic book reviewer program from The Catholic Company.  Visit The Catholic Company for more information on Already There-Letting God Find You and be sure to check out their great selection of Mary statues while you are there.

I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book by The Catholic Company in exchange for my honest review.