If you’re looking for a good guide to the Mass, check out Praying the Mass: The Prayers of the People. It’s by Jeff Pinyan, who blogs at The Cross Reference.
If you’ve ever felt like you’ve been sleepwalking through the Mass, you need this book. Jeff opens up the mysteries for us and reveals the Mass to be the most exciting moment of our lives — indeed, of all human history. He illuminates every word and gesture, bell and smell. So buy the book and lift up your hearts! Thanks be to God!
BMCR posted a review of Franz Hasenhütl’s Die Heidenrede im “Octavius” des Minucius Felix als Brennpunkt antichristlicher Apologetik: Weltanschauliche und gesellschaftliche Widersprüche zwischen paganer Bildungsoberschicht und Christentum. Though the book is in German, the review is in English, and the discussion will be welcome by anyone who’s a fan (as I am) of Octavius, the second-century dialogue by Minucius Felix.
I had a great time on the air, on Sirius, with Greg and Jennifer Willits, “The Catholics Next Door.” You can listen in here, on their site. We’re talking about my book Fire of God’s Love: 120 Reflections on the Eucharist.
You’ll find that book reviewed here by Evann.
BMCR reviews Christos Didaskalos. The Christology of Clement of Alexandria, by Oleh Kindiy.
Brilliant, a man deeply cultured, Clement left us one of the warmest voices of the pre-Nicene Church. His portrait of Christ is complex, according to Kindiy, according to the reviewer:
Christ as the New Song is the captivating fish net which attracts non-Christians to Christianity and which retains them as Christians. The first changes of the new Christians in the congregation are also the work of the New Song.
At the next stage, Christ the Pedagogue takes over the responsibility for the newly converted and teaches them how to live as Christians. After that, the Pedagogue teaches the Christians how to read the Bible in a proper way, for example by introducing them to the ideas of different levels of the biblical texts. Further, the Pedagogue teaches Christians about the identity of God, which was hidden from them until then, and also about the identity and destiny of humans. Another part of the Pedagogue’s work is to heal humanity in order to lead humanity back to its original health.
Christ as High Priest brings the advanced Christians who have been taught by the Pedagogue and Teacher to the highest level of knowledge (gnosis). At this level, the Christians will be able to see and contemplate God, and they will consequently be one with God (theosis).
I just got my first copy in today’s mail.
It’s Take Five: Meditations with Pope Benedict XVI, co-authored with my good friend Father Kris Stubna. And it has a foreword by everyone’s favorite patrologist in the U.S. hierarchy, Daniel Cardinal DiNardo of Galveston-Houston.
BMCR posted a list of books received, including some patristic titles. This caught my eye: Jerome of Stridon: His Life, Writings and Legacy, by Andrew Cain and Josef Lössl.
Lots of people have been reviewing my books. God bless them.
Three have posted reviews of Fire of God’s Love: 120 Reflections on the Eucharist:
This, That, and the Other Thing
and Karin.
You can find several more reviews of Fire of God’s Love at The Catholic Company.
Brandon at The Thin Veil considers my book The Fathers of the Church (Expanded Edition).
Susan Stabile at Creo en Dios reviews Fire of God’s Love: 120 Reflections on the Eucharist.
Katie is not Just Another Catholic Mom — though that’s the name she blogs by. She’s a very astute reader and reviewer of my books. She’s posted a review of The Fathers of the Church (Expanded Edition), and here’s a little excerpt:
Thorough enough that it’s used by clergy and seminarians, the books is also easy to read and accessible to lay Catholics, which was just what I was looking for. I’ve always been interested in learning more about the early Church, but have found other books to be entirely too academic and boring for me to get through. Aquilina’s book, in contrast, I actually thought was fun to read … This expanded version also includes a short chapter on “Mothers of the Church” that was fascinating.
Polycarp at The Church of Jesus Christ is giving away my book Signs and Mysteries: Revealing Ancient Christian Symbols.
While we’re on the subject of poets and patristics …
Last month I read This Great Unknowing, a collection of the last poems (posthumously published) by Denise Levertov. A British-born American poet, Levertov was the longtime poetry editor for The Nation. She converted to Roman Catholicism late in life. In her last notebook was a poem, “Translucence,” about Christians she knew. Her conclusion got me choked up:
They know of themselves nothing different
from anyone else. This great unknowing
is part of their holiness. They are always trying
to share out joy as if it were cake or water,
something ordinary, not rare at all.
Christians are indistinguishable from other men either by nationality, language or customs. They do not inhabit separate cities of their own, or speak a strange dialect, or follow some outlandish way of life. Their teaching is not based upon reveries inspired by the curiosity of men. Unlike some other people, they champion no purely human doctrine. With regard to dress, food and manner of life in general, they follow the customs of whatever city they happen to be living in, whether it is Greek or foreign.And yet there is something extraordinary about their lives. They live in their own countries as though they were only passing through. They play their full role as citizens, but labor under all the disabilities of aliens. Any country can be their homeland, but for them their homeland, wherever it may be, is a foreign country. Like others, they marry and have children, but they do not expose them. They share their meals, but not their wives.They live in the flesh, but they are not governed by the desires of the flesh. They pass their days upon earth, but they are citizens of heaven. Obedient to the laws, they yet live on a level that transcends the law. Christians love all men, but all men persecute them. Condemned because they are not understood, they are put to death, but raised to life again. They live in poverty, but enrich many; they are totally destitute, but possess an abundance of everything. They suffer dishonor, but that is their glory. They are defamed, but vindicated. A blessing is their answer to abuse, deference their response to insult. For the good they do they receive the punishment of malefactors, but even then they, rejoice, as though receiving the gift of life. They are attacked by the Jews as aliens, they are persecuted by the Greeks, yet no one can explain the reason for this hatred.To speak in general terms, we may say that the Christian is to the world what the soul is to the body. As the soul is present in every part of the body, while remaining distinct from it, so Christians are found in all the cities of the world, but cannot be identified with the world. As the visible body contains the invisible soul, so Christians are seen living in the world, but their religious life remains unseen. The body hates the soul and wars against it, not because of any injury the soul has done it, but because of the restriction the soul places on its pleasures. Similarly, the world hates the Christians, not because they have done it any wrong, but because they are opposed to its enjoyments.Christians love those who hate them just as the soul loves the body and all its members despite the body’s hatred. It is by the soul, enclosed within the body, that the body is held together, and similarly, it is by the Christians, detained in the world as in a prison, that the world is held together. The soul, though immortal, has a mortal dwelling place; and Christians also live for a time amidst perishable things, while awaiting the freedom from change and decay that will be theirs in heaven. As the soul benefits from the deprivation of food and drink, so Christians flourish under persecution. Such is the Christian’s lofty and divinely appointed function, from which he is not permitted to excuse himself.
If you’re within driving distance of Youngstown, Ohio, please do yourself a favor and mark your calendar — right now — for Tuesday, September 8, at 7 p.m. That’s when the great David Mills is speaking to the Society of St. John Chrysostom. His topic is “Sharing Mary: How to Talk to Protestant and Secular Friends about the Mother of God.” The evening will also include a panel discussion.
In addition to being my godson, David is author of many books, most recently Discovering Mary: Answers to Questions about the Mother of God. This is a title you must own. (I mean that as only a truly Sicilian godfather can mean it.)
The event takes place at St. Edward Catholic Church, 240 Tod Lane, Youngstown, Ohio 44504. The sponsoring organization, SSJC, promotes ecumenical dialogue of the east-west variety. Most members belong to Orthodox or Catholic churches, but everyone’s welcome to the event, and admission is free.
Sorry I’ve been so quiet. I was back in the studio with Scott Hahn to tape another 13-week series for EWTN. This one, our eighth, is based on Scott’s upcoming book Signs of Life: 40 Catholic Customs and Their Biblical Roots. I’ve now hosted more than a hundred shows for EWTN.
And, of course, by night I continue laboring at my painstaking reconstruction of the bylaws of the Q Community’s volunteer fire department. It takes its toll.
BMCR posted a review (in French) of this book (in English): Beginnings: Ancient Christian Readings of the Biblical Creation Narratives.
The blog at Oxford University Press has posted some tantalizing samples from Henry Chadwick’s forthcoming (posthumously published) biography of Augustine. Hat tip: Jim Davila.