Be satisfied with enough It’s easy to have more than enough to get by, says St. Ambrose. But lust and greed always want more. Control them, and you’ll find that you live in abundance. If you want to be rich, you must be poor. Then you will be rich in everything, if you are poor in spirit. It isn’t property that makes you rich, but the spirit. There are those who humble themselves in the midst of abundant riches, and... Read more
In today’s society any discussions regarding homosexuality usually descend into an “us vs. them” argument. This however is contrary to Church teaching. Eve Tushnet takes a unique approach to the debate living her life as a celibate gay. In her book Gay and Catholic: Accepting My Sexuality, Finding Community, Living My Faithshe puts a face to the debate and in turn makes us all stop and consider our own viewpoints. The book is part memoir and part lesson on friendship... Read more
Learn contentment from the fish Fish follow the order of nature, says St. Basil, and no one has to tell them to do it. We should learn from the fish to be happy with the place God has given us, and not break God’s laws to take what belongs to others. How is it that each sort of fish, content with the region that has been assigned to it, never travels over its own limits to pass into foreign seas?... Read more
Don’t forget to give thanks Rome came very close to being destroyed by Attila the Hun, but Pope St. Leo the Great went out unarmed to meet the unstoppable conqueror and somehow persuaded him to turn back. Here Leo scolds the Romans for failing to give proper thanks to God for their deliverance. I beg you, dear friends, let the words of the Savior touch our hearts. When by the power of his mercy he had cured ten lepers, he... Read more
Welcome back to “The Laity Speaks”, a recurring feature here at The Catholic Book Blogger. This feature is the companion to “The Clergy Speaks” and takes us to the other side of the pulpit to hear prominent lay people’s answer to the same question. That question is: What five books would you recommend as must-reads for Catholics today? I left the responses open to current or classic books with the only restriction being that the Bible and the Catechism could... Read more
Praise according to your ability We can’t ever completely comprehend the nature of God, says St. Cyril of Jerusalem. But that doesn’t keep us from studying what we can understand and praising God for his glory. But someone might say, “If what God is can never be comprehended, why do you even talk about these things?” So, then, because I can’t drink up the whole river, am I not even allowed to take in moderation what’s good for me? Because... Read more
PETE: With nearly 5000 handwritten pages to go through, how did you decide what to include in the book My Battle Against Hitler and how long did the project take? JOHN HENRY CROSBY: You can imagine how difficult it was to select material for a book of just a few hundred pages! That said, Dietrich von Hildebrand’s memoirs begin with his childhood and cover in great detail the period of his youth, university years, and, only toward the end, his... Read more
Be cheerful You can’t be a Christian and a grump at the same time, the visionary Hermas is told. If you let grief take hold of you,it will lead you away from God. Get rid of your grief. Don’t crush the Holy Spirit who lives in you, or he might withdraw from you and plead against you to God. For the Spirit of God, who has been given to us to dwell in this body, doesn’t stand for grief or... Read more
Suit your practice to your nature. Not everyone can fast heroically, says St. John Cassian. We need to take our own constitutions into account. The object of fasting is not the fast itself, but its effect: to keep gluttony from turning our minds away from what’s really important. No single rule can easily be set down for how we should fast, because not everybody has the same strength; nor is it like the rest of the virtues, acquired by steadfastness... Read more
There have been a large number of books written on World War II. All of them cover a myriad of topics relating to the war. The more interesting ones are written by those with first hand experiences in the war. Thanks to Image Books we now have available a memoir written by one of the most intellectual minds of that era. My Battle Against Hitler: Faith, Truth, and Defiance in the Shadow of the Third Reich is the memoir of... Read more
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