Just as the movie Brokeback Mountain paved the way for widespread acceptance of homosexual love affairs, the novel The Lion’s Heart is poised to do the same for the Catholic view of homosexuality. Almost certainly the first of its kind, this gay Catholic romance novel was written by Dena Hunt (also author of Treason) and published by Full […]
Living my vocation is hard. So, so hard. However, when I truly invest myself completely in loving and serving these humans that God has given me, the graces flow and joy abounds. Its true, what they say: If mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy. To that end, over the last few years I’ve been seeking […]
When John Paul II used his first years as pope forming the Theology of the Body, he meant it as a springboard for further reflection by theologians. In Theology of the Body, Extended: the Spiritual Signs of Birth, Impairment, and Dying, Susan Windley-Daoust takes that invitation and runs with it. John Paul II focused on […]
In the June 2014 issue of Columbia Magazine, published by the Knights of Columbus, Alton J. Pelowski offered a profile of Myles Connolly (1897 – 1964), a former editor of that publication. A graduate of Boston College, he would serve in the Navy during the end of World War I, work as a reporter for […]
National Catholic Register blogger Jennifer Fulwiler just published her long awaited memoir, Something Other Than God. The book is enjoying exposure and praise typically reserved for secular tales. When I saw the book profiled on Forbes.com, a real feat for a Catholic conversion story, I braced myself for something compelling. The memoir is written with […]
Warning! Spoilers Ahead!! Divergent is the latest of the teen dystopian future trilogies to hit the big screen. I have read all three books, Divergent, Insurgent, and Allegiant. Is it not my favorite trilogy in this growing genre, but I know that teens everywhere love it. I do appreciate that Veronica Roth has tackled some […]
Life today is fast-paced and can lead us astray, so we need to slow down sometimes and reset our direction toward God. The best way to begin this reorientation is by making space – both physically and spiritually – for prayer in the home. This is the message of the book The Little Oratory: A […]
St. Gianna Beretta Molla is a popular saint, not only because she was so profoundly pro-life as to give up her own life in order to save her unborn child, but also because she was a modern woman and a working mother. She is someone mothers of today can relate to and aspire to imitate […]
Dear God, You Can’t Be Serious (Liguori Publications, 2014) is the sequel to Patti Maguire Armstrong’s Dear God, I Don’t Get It, but one need not have read the first one to enjoy the second. While the first book focused on older brother Aaron, a sixth grader who had to move to a new state […]
The Biblical story of Tobit’s marriage to Sarah, whose previous seven husbands had been slain by demons, has been cleverly reimagined in a new novel (released April 2014 by Ignatius Press) called Tobit’s Dog, by Michael N. Richard. The novel is set in the backwoods of Depression-era North Carolina. The plight of blacks in the […]
To recommend any book, I should at least be able to say to you that it is a pleasure to read. This book is a pleasure indeed! But saying the least is not my problem with reviewing Chesterton’s America: A Distributist History of the United States. My problem is having the space to say all […]
Dr. Bert Ghezzi, well-known Catholic author of several books on the saints and the sacraments, has now written a book about how Catholics live. The Heart of Catholicism: Practicing the Everyday Habits that Shape Us (Ave Maria Press, 2014) “is a book about what Catholics do and why they do it. It describes the practices […]
Emily and I drove home from the hospital in complete silence. The gravity of the moment eleven years ago hit me: we were responsible for someone else’s life. Gulp. At this time, I had been a Catholic for only three years. Through conversion, I fell in love with the theology and the sacraments. Yet, I […]
I have a bone to pick with Jennifer Fulwiler: she kept me up late for about week reading her book, Something Other Than God. And we’ve got four kids aged five and under, so sleep is at a high premium around here. I wasn’t planning on reading Something Other Than God at all right now. […]
In Three Persons, One God: Growing in Relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Leonine Publishers), Allison Gingras offers a primer in developing a personal relationship with the three persons of the Blessed Trinity. In her introduction, Gingras refers to the Gospel passage of Luke 8:4-15. That parable is about the farmer who went […]
Through the years I have been asked to review a good many books on topics from microbiology, to evolution, biomedical ethics, spirituality, and even the life of Cardinal Newman. It’s always a privilege to do so, to be a part of the birthing of an author’s dream, to help bring forward an idea, a perspective, […]
At the end of Science Was Born of Christianity: The Teaching of Fr. Stanley L. Jaki, I wrote, “If a reader gains anything from this book, let it be that one may confidently say that Catholic dogma positively and directly influenced the Scientific Revolution.” I proposed that perhaps the argument in the book that “science was born […]
It’s a troubling fact today that many Catholic children don’t know the basics of the faith. Many come to religious instruction in parishes without knowing how to make the Sign of the Cross or recite the Our Father or Hail Mary. Teaching children growing up in a secularized world, catechists and teachers can’t assume that […]
A funny thing happened as Msgr. Charles M. Murphy was putting the finishing touches on a manuscript about St. Francis and how he could be a role model for the new evangelization: Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina was elected to lead the Catholic Church and took the name of Francis to be his own. While […]
I recently had the great privilege of reading and reviewing a.k.a. Genius, the first in a new series by Catholic writer Marilee Haynes, published by Pauline Teen. I loved the book and, even though it is aimed at middle-schoolers, found myself laughing out loud at many parts. It was a humorous, faith-based story with an […]
Karin Niemeyer has penned her first children’s book.
I’ve noticed a curious tic in my circle of friends. We’ve known each other for years, we share the faith, a worldview, and a trail of conversations on almost every subject, and yet, there are moments where we stop mid-sentence to adjust our words, the delivery, or the approach to a topic that is currently […]
In Dostoevsky’s epic novel, The Brothers Karamazov, brothers Ivan and Alyosha engage in a deep discussion about God – his existence and his goodness. Expressing frustration at his brother’s rejection of faith, Aloysha declares that if there is no God, “everything is permitted.” The truth of this observation may be seen in the ongoing debate over […]
With the canonization of Blessed John Paul II taking place on Divine Mercy Sunday, the world’s attention turns to the legacy of the beloved former pontiff. Many will posit his theology of the body, travels across the globe or the record number of new saints as underpinnings of his papacy. However, there’s one imprint that […]
