These Just In: Two Books I Can't Wait to Read

I was surprised but pleased when I opened the package containing Holy Ghosts yesterday. Gary Jansen wrote a stellar book about the rosary which I remembered well, but I couldn't imagine why he was writing a book about ghosts. Turns out, Jansen's time living in a haunted house (yes, really) helped him dig deeper into his own faith and lack of belief in "things unseen." I began reading my standard "book sampling" of the first chapter to see if I wanted to read more. When I came to myself some time later, I had finished half the book. Obviously, this is a gripping story on several levels and I will review it here later.

Ok, and I just want to say ... anyone who has a good idea their house is haunted and then goes up in the middle of the night to the attic to pull out a reference book? They're not firing on all cylinders ... even if they are looking for the Catholic Dictionary. I'm just sayin' that I was kinda freakin' out the whole time I was reading about it (and not without reason, y'all).



Everyone here knows I'm a big fan of Mike Aquilina's writing. As a matter of fact, I put his book The Resilient Church in my "To Reread" stack just the other day. That book looks at how the Church has overcome past trials, some of which were brought upon Her by our own sinful selves. It is a great resource (and reminder) for those times when someone throws up a painful past with facts that might not really be accurate. Or when they aren't aware of what was done to correct a particular problem.

Roots of the Faith looks as if it will make a good "bookend" read since it takes a "time travel" look at some very familiar Catholic concepts like the Mass, confession, and teachings against abortion and then goes back to see what the early Christians actually practiced and believed. How does he know? The Church Fathers, of course, wrote a lot of it down and if there's something we can count on Mike for, it is knowing what the Church Fathers said about things. This looks like something we can use when coming up against those folks who like have been taught that the Catholic Church has changed everything around from the way it was in the early days of the Church.