Blessed Be God (or Lent's not that far away)

Lent is right around the corner (Oh no!  Oh wait, that's a good thing, if you're ready for it)

I'm sure you're seeing all sorts of suggestions/recommendations on other blogs but here's a recommendation for a great prayer book which would be wonderful to have even if Lent wasn't barreling down on us.

Blessed Be God by Fathers Callan and McHugh.

I got this book a week ago and I can't stop picking it up. It's small in dimension but it's a real prayer book with thin pages like missals of old so even with 700+ pages, it is still relatively light-weight.  It has daily prayers, prayers for the Day of the Week, Month of the Year, novenas, devotions, etc. They're all beautiful prayers. Most of them flow very well, there are a few which have words like 'livest and reignest' in them so those feels a little clunky when you're saying them. But the book is full of jewels of Catholic worship from long ago. It was originally published in 1959.

Rome Sweet Home

I love conversion stories and have always enjoyed listening to Dr Scott Hahn, a famous convert, who brings complex theological issues down to a level that even *I* can understand so I thought the book by he and his wife, Kimberly, Rome Sweet Home, would be a happy story.

Well, it didn’t start out that way! I knew they had a happy ending because both they and their children made it into the Catholic Church many years ago but the book covered the whole process of their discovery of the fullness of Truth of the Catholic Church.  First Kimberly made the discovery that the Church was correct about contraception (this book was written in the early 1990s by the way). Then Scott questioned one tenet of Protestantism, sola fide, and for him, that started unraveling the whole ball of yarn. He fought his conversion every step of the way, at least in the beginning and Kimberly, while being a supportive wife, fought the idea and prayed and read books and prayed some more.

It was a real page-turner for me and made me respect the Hahns’ struggles to get to where they are today.


Also, in the book, they mention a talk that Scott gave to a group of Catholics. It became known as "The Tape" and can be found here.

What I heard (and sang) at Mass last week

at St. Joseph's in Columbia, SC

Tuesday is Quote Day

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. No, that's not the quote of the day but just my way of flattering Happy Catholic. I really don't know how she gets it all done every day. She blogs frequently, she reviews (and reads!) lots of books, she does podcasts, she has a full-time job... I'm getting tired just listing all the stuff.

Anyways, here is today's quote...

The whole trouble is that -- literally -- we do not know what is good for us; and what makes the trouble still worse is that we think we do. We have our own plans for our happiness, and too often we merely regard God as somebody who will help us to accomplish them. The true state of affairs is just the opposite. God has His plans for our happiness, and He is waiting for us to help Him to accomplish them. And let us be quite clear about it: We cannot improve on God's plans.

This Tremendous Lover, M. Eugene Boylan, O.C.R.

A Catholic Exam

This was developed by Matthew the Seminarian, the blogger formerly
known as Moneybags, (I'd love to know the story behind that name) of A
Catholic Life.

http://acatholiclife.blogspot.com/2006/01/catholic-exam.html

It's tough! Post your score below... And good luck!

Some housekeeping...

Blogspot/Blogger has added several new features/doo-dads/templates for blogs so I'll be taking a look at how I can jazz up this blog. Check back soon!

My favorite blogs (no longer publishing)

These are some of the blogs I used to follow regularly. I wish they still posted entries but maybe their creative juices ran dry...

So Many Devotions...So Little Time

Dust of the Time

Holy Cards for your Inspiration