After the last
book-related post I wrote, I received an email, through a mutual friend, from Brian of
Catholic Word: would I be interested in receiving review copies of books?
Is the Pope a Catholic?
Well, yesterday I received a parcel. I love parcels. I'm not so fond of those styrofoam "peanuts" which fill so many parcels (no matter how careful you are, several of them always escape and stick to stuff... I'll be finding styrofoam peanuts for weeks!) but, every silver lining has its cloud.
Inside the parcel: six books and a CD.
The first book was
The Signs of the Times: Understanding the Church Since Vatican II. It is a collection of writings by Fr. Richard Gilsdorf. At around 500 pages, I doubt that it'll be a quick read, but, having glanced at the Foreward, I am keen to continue.
"To read this book, then, is to understand the crises afflicting the Church. It is to understand why catechesis has lacked substance and been so ineffective, why some diocesan newspapers still feature dissenting columnists..."
Oooooh. Tabletistas explained...
The next book out of the box is Christopher West's
Theology of the Body for Beginners. This is not a book I would have chosen to buy, it not really being a subject I'm particularly interested in, but the book is quite a short one, so I shall give it a go.
Building on a Solid Foundation, by Fr. Antoine Bakh, Daniel Daou and Joseph Bakhos is a sort of shortened catechism, arranged under seven topics: The Holy Trinity, the Eucharist, Salvation, The Church, Confession and Reconciliation, Purgatory and the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Each of the topics is followed by a section giving quotes on the topic by the early Church Fathers, and then a list of Scriptural quotes, which gives the book a very "Evangelical" feel. I think this is more a reference work rather than something to be read cover-to-cover, though the topics are surprisingly short, given the thickness of the book.
Brian told me that
Made for More, by Curtis Martin, was a reason-based argument for Jesus' Divinity, in that it didn't use Scripture as a basis for proof. It's a small, pocket-sized book, so not too daunting. I am keen to see how it reads, as one of the most common objections I've heard from teenagers over the years is how we can't use the Bible to argue anything, because obviously it's biased! This is, of course, nonsense, but I'm interested to know what non-Scriptural arguments can be roped in for support!
Did Adam & Eve Have Belly Buttons? by Matthew J. Pinto is another reference-type book. The front cover proclaims that the questions (200 of them) are from Catholic teenagers, but many of the questions are the same (or similar) to the questions asked by adult converts to Catholicism - the cover will, I fear, put many people off this book, not least the teenagers the book is aimed at... because it is most definitely not "cool" (or whatever the latest buzz-phrase is) to be seen reading a book written specifically
for teenagers.
If they overcome this hurdle, the book itself is excellent, though I wouldn't recommend reading it cover-to-cover. It's a book to be dipped into, with a question or two (along with the answers, naturally!) being read at any one time. Many of the questions seem pretty obvious: "Q. 82. Can you be forgiven for committing murder?" but these really are the sort of questions I've been asked by teenagers, even those who are preparing for Confirmation.
The final book out of the box was
Ignatius of Antioch: A New Translation and Theological Commentary by Dr. Kenneth J. Howell. A small, slim volume, it nevertheless was the book that interested me the most.
I first encountered St. Ignatius from the writings picked for the Office of Readings. Fairly early on in the year, I think, there's a letter of his which describes how he expected to be thrown to the lions in the arena, and how he did not want his followers to try and save him. (I may be muddling two of the extracts together, but no matter, you get the general idea!)
This was all much as one might expect from a saint of the early Church. Then, his letter gets a little surreal... apparently, several of the beasts used for the games were rather poor specimens, and were rather reluctant to dispatch the Christians presented to them. St. Ignatius was a little anxious that his martyrdom might be impeded because of the indifference of the animals, and so he described his intention of persuading the animals to eat him... "I shall use force to them..." he said.
In anyone other than a Saint of the Church, this would be considered serious mental disturbance!
So, I've always been a little intrigued by St. Ignatius of Antioch.
The CD which was enclosed was one on Confession, by Fr. Larry Richards. It's distributed free by the Mary Foundation, and can be ordered
online. I found the quality rather fuzzy (I guess we've been spoiled by near-perfect CD recordings) and the speaker was very "American-Evangelical" in his approach: referring to Bible chapters, and encouraging his audience to look up the quotes with him. It was, however, a good summary of why we need to go to Confession, and Fr. Richards gave a brief run-through of how the Commandments are relevent to our lives.
That lot should keep me out of mischief for a while!
We had so many servers for Benediction that they barely fitted in the photo... I shall have to consider moving back a couple of pews!
When I first came back to the fold, I had picked up the idea that not eating meat on Fridays was something that Catholics used to do, but Vatican II had done away with all that, because it really wasn't very practical... and anyway, quite a lot of the world's population never ate meat at all due to poverty, and so not eating meat on Fridays was a bit pointless...
Matthew over at Creative Minority Report has posted about the latest Barbie to hit the shops: Tattoo Barbie. No, Cavey, don't get excited, not a military tattoo, just the body-piercing type.
I was feeling really ill last week. I felt so ill, I actually made the effort to go to see my GP. He listened to my symptoms (feeling dizzy, major headache for two days, pins and needles in one hand) stuck a thermometer in my mouth and told me that I had a temperature of 38.3 °C. This, as one friend informed me, is very nearly 101 F.
...and it would have been handy on our recent snow day... instead of which I had to trek around the back of the flats to clear snow from the cat-flap ledge before Sylvester would deign to go outside...
Laurence England writes a really good blog. He also is fortunate enough to attend an excellent parish (Fr. Ray Blake, the PP, is a really wonderful priest!)
After months and months of waiting, I have finally lost my temper with Blogrolling.com. It's a real shame, because I had used them for the whole of my blogging career to date, and, until the latest blip, they had been very good; this was why I was so patient with them.
...the Sisters of the Gospel of Life have been overwhelmed by the generous response to their appeal for funds. However, there's still a way to go.
This made me smile, though the thought of a cat being locked out all night is not a good one... Sylvester has the freedom of the cat-flap (as I have discovered, to my cost, when it has been raining at 4am and he wants to be dried off!)
