...and it is here that we dance!: Book Reviews

Book Reviews

Words CAN be enough...

...to set the world on fire, to move mountains, to change a life... because words taken to heart become the arms, legs, hearts, and souls who stand in solidarity, who love as required, and do what must be done.

Words have always had a very important role in my life. I like how they taste... their texture and flavour as they roll over my tongue and settle into my heart is something of a wonder and marvel to me!

They have nurtured my spirit and my personality.

They have informed my conscience and challenged my thinking.

They inspire, conspire, confound, delight, and humble me.

They have cut me to ribbons and have stitched me back together.

They have revealed themselves to be a powerful tool in my own hands, and in so doing, they have taught me (in addition to the things still being revealed to me) temperance, judiciousness, compassion, simplicity, economy, contrition and flexibility.

Thoughts/beliefs (BOOKS!) are essentially words strung together for maximum effect, and we create what we repeatedly think or focus on. The words we choose to carry in our hearts, those that echo in the corners of our minds, and with which we choose to define our 'self'... these are either the affirmation, or death knell, to our sense of purpose and our dreams.

This is my place to honour the words (BOOKS!) that touch me as I journey. I hope you find something here to feed, encourage and inspire you.

Check back often... I'll review books as I read them in the body of my blog, and then file the links here for easy reference. I love recommendations, so don't hesitate to share your books, too!

Books I have read multiple times and which I will read again:

Fiction:

Poetry:

Catholicism:

Health & Fitness:

Children's:

Psychology:

Apologetics:

a lamp unto my feet . . .

"In the beginnning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made."
JOHN 1: 1-3

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"When the unstoppable bullet hits the impenetrable wall, we find the religious experience. It is precisely here that one will grow.... Heroism could be redefined for our time as the ability to stand paradox." ROBERT A. JOHNSON, 'Owning Your Own SHADOW'

In a world where heroes have become passe, it is here that I hope to become a hero in my own, and in that of my daughter's, life. This is my place to hopefully step into, and own, my shadow.

Like your average hero, I've struggled most of my life to reconcile my internal experience with the realities of life around me. I've struggled also, with varying degrees of success, to respond to both my internal and external experience with the mind of the Church, and from a place of faith. Through all of it, I have felt deeply the central Christian mystery and have, indeed, found it worth dying for.

My life continues to be an on-going series of what often feel like unstoppable bullets, hitting the nearly impenetrable wall of my intellect, selfishness, fear, stubborness, righteous anger, independence and pride... exactly where the religious experience happens, and paradox becomes holy. I have discovered that my greatest successes in reconciling my external and internal experiences come to me through writing... and it is then that we (my God and I) dance.

"The Catholic writer, in so far as he has the mind of the Church, will feel life from the standpoint of the central Christian mystery: that it has for all its horror, been found by God to be worth dying for." FLANNERY O'CONNOR

Reader comments, and the discussions that occur through the comment boxes, are what enrich the blogging experience for all involved. To that end, if you please, read the 'About comments...' page beforehand. I've been witness to too many blog 'conversations' that have been more demoralizing than they have been enriching. For that reason, I invite, and reserve the right to maintain, some guidelines.

If you'd like to contact me personally for any reason (I'm especially pleased to welcome any questions you might have), you can find me here.

If you'd like to read my entire profile you can do so here.

I write because I owe God an answer. I hope you'll join the conversation.

Peace be with you!

St. Isidore of Seville - Patron Saint of the Internet

"Almighty and eternal God, who created us in Thy image and bade us to seek after all that is good, true and beautiful, especially in the divine person of Thy Only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, grant, we beseech Thee, that, through the intercession of Saint Isidore, Bishop and Doctor, during our journeys through the internet we will direct our hands and eyes only to that which is pleasing to Thee and treat with charity and patience all those souls whom we encounter. Through Christ our Lord. Amen." Fr. John Zuhlsdorf, A prayer before logging onto the internet

Edith Stein, St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

"God is there in these moments of rest and can give us in a single instant exactly what we need. Then the rest of the day can take its course, under the same effort and strain, perhaps, but in peace. And when night comes, and you look back over the day and see how fragmentary everything has been, and how much you planned that has gone undone, and all the rasons you have to be embarrassed and ashamed: just take everything exactly as it is, put it in God’s hands and leave it with Him. Then you will be able to rest in Him -- really rest -- and start the next day as a new life."

St. Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney - Patron Saint of Priests

"O Almighty Eternal God, Look upon the face of Thy Christ, and for the love of Him, Who is the Eternal High Priest, have pity on Thy priests. Remember, O most compassionate God, that they are but weak and frail human beings. Stir up in them the grace of their vocation which is in them by the imposition of the Bishop’s hands. Keep them close to Thee, lest the enemy prevail against them, so that they may never do anything in the slightest degree unworthy of their sublime vocation. O Jesus, keep them all close to Thy heart, and bless them abundantly in time and in eternity."

St. Michael the Archangel: Prayer Campaign for the Conversion of Abortionists

"Glorious Prince of the Celestial Host, St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in the conflict which we have to sustain against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places (Eph 6:12). Come to the rescue of men whom God has redeemed at a great price from the tyranny of the devil. It is thou whom Holy Church venerates as her guardian and her protector; thou whom the Lord has charged to conduct redeemed souls into heaven. Pray therefore, the God of peace, to subdue Satan beneath our feet, that he may no longer retain men captive nor do injury to the Church. Present our prayers to the Most High, that without delay they may draw His mercy down upon us. Seize “the dragon, the ancient serpent, which is the devil and Satan,” bind him and cast him into the bottomless pit…”that he may no longer seduce the nations” (Rev 20:2-3)."

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