The Bookshelf

Following Christ in a Consumer Society

In his book, "Following Christ in a Consumer Society," Fr. John Kavanaugh elaborates on what he refers to as “The Commodity Form” wherein he examines the extremes that our society has been drawn into without slaking our thirst for products and services of every conceivable type.

Then he focuses on “The Personal Form” which concentrates on the Gospel message of Jesus requiring Christians to love and help each other vs. loving “things.”

Fr. Kavanaugh (1941 - 2012) was an acclaimed professor of philosophy at St. Louis University.  The depth of his intellect makes reading some pages of the book a definite challenge. But there are many sections that shine with facts and smooth logic encouraging the reader to live the Gospel message with stepped up commitment and more enthusiasm.

This Jesuit’s knowledge of the virtual overwhelming lure of our culture is made clear with the 27 page bibliography at the end of the book. That section is entitled, “Reading About Culture and Faith.”

His comments related to the many books that he has studied on our culture is a worthy reading all by itself.

Four Signs of a Dynamic Catholic

if you have read this book in the past, now may be a good time to bring it out again and re-read. If you are feeling adrift during our current environment, prayer can be the rock that keeps you grounded.

Taken from the book "The Four Signs of a Dynamic Catholic," by Matthew Kelly.

The Prayer Process provides a consistent format to guide you in your daily prayer. The first barrier to entry for most people who feel drawn to prayer is that they simply don’t know how to pray. They have never been taught to pray.

The Prayer Process overcomes this  first barrier by providing people with a format and a method. It provides the routine within the routine that dynamic Catholics have spent decades developing through the painstaking process of trial and error.

The Prayer Process:

1 Gratitude: Begin by thanking God in a personal dialogue for whatever you are most grateful for today.

2 Awareness: Revisit the times in the past twenty-four hours when you were and were not the-best-version-of-your-self. Talk to God about these situations and what you learned from them.

3 Significant Moments: Identify something you experienced in the last twenty-four hours and explore what God might be trying to say to you through that event (or person).

4 Peace: Ask God to forgive you for any wrong you have committed (against yourself, another person, or Him) and to fill you with a deep and abiding peace.

5 Freedom: Speak with God about how He is inviting you to change your life, so that you can experience the freedom to be the-best-version-of-yourself.

6 Others: Lift up to God anyone you feel called to pray for today, asking God to bless and guide them.

7 Pray the Our Father.

How to be Holy

Do you think that holiness is for other people? Many of us think of it as something that the priest or deacon is supposed to be, but not us. Or we think of holiness as some sort of unattainable perfection. Both of which are wrong.

Peter Kreeft has many good books, but "How To Be Holy," reminds us that everybody is called to holiness and to be a saint. In very practical terms, he talks about what that means and how it can be achieved.