In today’s hectic, secular world our relationship with God often takes a backseat. Likely there comes a point in everyone’s spiritual journey Where they realize this relationship needs attention. Father John Bartunek has provided us with a book to aid in this relationship. That book is his latest, Seeking First the Kingdom: 30 Meditations on How to Love God with All Your Heart, Soul, Mind, and Strength. As Father Bartunek states part way through the book “Loving God with all... Read more
Drink from the fountain of love Like the Israelites, we are wandering in the desert as a training for the Promised Land. To keep us from dying of thirst, says St. Augustine, God has given us the fountain of love to drink from. To all the faithful who are seeking their own country, this world is as the desert was to the people of Israel. They were certainly wandering and seeking their own country, but with God as their guide... Read more
Find all the virtues in love Virtue, says St. Augustine, is simply love in action. All the named virtues are different aspects of love, and perfect love for God produces perfect virtue. As far as virtue leading us to a happy life is concerned, I believe that virtue is nothing other than perfect love of God. I regard the fourfold division of virtue as taken from the four forms of love. I wish all felt the influence of those four... Read more
Welcome to “The Laity Speaks”, a new 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
Lighthouse Catholic Media has just released three more brand new talks to CD and MP3 that I am featuring this week. Click the cover image above to purchase this talk as either a CD or MP3 download. Get the most out of Advent by following along with Fr. Robert Barron’s homilies as he unpacks these profound scripture readings. The homilies presented on this CD will correspond to the Scriptures for Sunday Masses throughout Advent and Christmas 2014: Advent Week 1:... Read more
Let love lead your mind back to God The mind that strays from God is miserable, says St. Augustine. Only love can lead the mind back to God, and to a real understanding of man’s place as a created being. The further the mind goes from God—not in space, but in affection and lust after things below him—the more it is filled with foolishness and misery. So by love it returns to God—a love that places it not beside God,... Read more
PETE: What inspired you to wrIte your novel about Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati? BRIAN KENNELLY: I hate to admit I actually didn’t know a thing about Pier Giorgio. My publisher, who did my first novel, Two Statues, called me and said they were thinking of doing a series of novels on modern saints. They asked if I wanted to write on Pier Giorgio. I wasn’t familiar with him so I ordered about 5 books and got to reading. I read... Read more
Thoughts of sin are seeds of sin A little weed, says St. Cyril of Jerusalem, can eventually break a rock apart with its roots. If you let in thoughts of sin, the sins themselves will follow. Now, someone might say, “What can sin be? Is it a living thing? An angel? A demon? What is this thing working inside us?” It is not an enemy that attacks you from outside, but an evil shoot growing up from inside yourself. “Let... Read more
Learn how to control your thoughts St. John Cassian recalls the wise words of an Egyptian abbot named Moses. You can’t always help it when evil thoughts pop up in your mind, Moses said, but you always have the power to accept or reject them. It is impossible for the mind not to be approached by thoughts, but it is in the power of everyone who is earnest either to admit them or to reject them. Even though their rising... Read more
The errors of others don’t make you right So you’ve proved that someone else’s opinion is wrong. Well, that doesn’t mean you’re right, says our author (writing under the name of Dionysius, a character in the New Testament). You could both be wrong. There are many falsehoods but only one truth. Do not imagine that it is a victory, holy Sopatros, to have denounced a devotion, or an opinion, that apparently is not good. Even if you have denounced it... Read more
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