'Tis the Season ... for Books

Lately received in the mail ... I haven't read them but they look good so here they are with some of the blurbs.

Take Five: Meditations With John Henry Newman by Mike Aquilina and Fr. Juan Velez

Newman's journey to Catholicism is one of the greatest stories of the nineteenth century church. He relied on divine revelation together with logical reasoning and historical facts to reach religious truths and vigorously defend religious doctrines.

This book's brief, focused meditations will bring a similar clarity to your daily activities through John Henry Newman's deep Christian spirituality. Each topical entry begins with an excerpt from John Henry Newman's writings, followed by these helpful prompts:

---THINK ABOUT IT Points that serve as a springboard for prayerful consideration of each meditation topic.

---JUST IMAGINE A Scripture scene that brings the issue at hand to life.

---REMEMBER A simple memorization passage to help you work through the meditation topic.

Where There Is Love, There Is God: A Path to Closer Union with God and Greater Love for Others - Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa’s relationship with God and her commitment to those she served—the poorest of the poor—is here powerfully explored in her own words. Taken largely from her private lessons to her sisters, published here for the first time, Where There is Love, There is God unveils her extraordinary faith in and surrender to God’s will. This book is in some way a sequel to Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light, in which her own very private spiritual struggles were explained. Sent to alleviate the sufferings of the poor, she assumed their struggles and pain in the depths of her heart. This led to particularly intense anguish which she lived through with heroic courage and fidelity over several decades. As important as this aspect of her life is, that remarkable testimony of her life and her words intensifies the need and desire to know more of her thought. There is much she can teach us as we face our daily struggles or sufferings, which can at times be unusually severe. Where There is Love, There is God, though not an exhaustive anthology of Mother Teresa’s teaching, nonetheless shows what she believed and taught about important issues that confront all people. Due to her constant interaction with people of diverse backgrounds, no life situation was foreign to her and in this book her role is primarily one of teacher and guide.

Paul: Tarsus to Redemption

Volume 2: Paul returns from years of solitude in the desert ready to begin his epic mission to Rome.

(This is part of that manga-style telling of Paul's story that I reviewed earlier.)

How to Get to "I Do": A Dating Guide for Catholic Women by Amy Bonaccorso

"Finding a man is just like finding a parking spot in New York City. It can be hard and take a while, but you can do it."—From Chapter One

Ten years of eye-opening experiences on the Christian dating scene equipped Amy Bonaccorso to offer hard-hitting advice that will help you get real, get practical, and get married. As a happily married woman, she knows what works (internet dating), what doesn't (living a nun-like existence), and gives you the confidence to date strategically with an eye toward marriage. Forget about Prince Charming—he doesn't exist—but plenty of good men are waiting for a woman like you to throw away the checklist of idealized mate material and settle down with a real man.

This practical and realistic guide for single Catholic women offers you an opportunity for self-assessment (if you want to make a good catch, be a good catch), and takes seriously the importance of marriage as a vocation to be pursued with as much energy as a call to the religious life.

Exercising Your Soul: Fifteen Minutes a Day to a Spiritual Life by Gary Jansen

EXERCISING YOUR SOUL, by Gary Jansen, is a spiritual fitness program, a guide to firming up faith that offers practical techniques to recharge and enhance relationships with yourself, with others, and, most important, with God. Drawing on spiritual practices from Christian traditions, the prayers and exercises in this book are powerful ways of experiencing God in day-to-day life. Jansen brings to life each of the practices he suggests as he shares his own growth through the disciplines.

With beautifully told, modern-day parables and stories, EXERCISING YOUR SOUL makes complicated concepts simple and exquisite. The antithesis of a self-help book, it is rather a "God-help book," one that places God at the center of all things and can transform lives forever.

Also, coming my way, so I am told:

• The End and the Beginning: Pope John Paul II -- The Victory of Freedom, the Last Years, the Legacy by George Weigel
• Fungus of the Heart by Jeremy C. Shipp
• Who is Jesus Christ? Unlocking the Mystery in the Gospel of Matthew by Eric Sammons