Kicking off a new series, Catholic Book of the Month, here in February of 2021. First up, a new book by one of my all-time favorite authors, one whose books and talks played a large role in my conversion. I’m looking forward to this series. I’ve found some great titles for it already. :)
It is Right and Just
Book of the Month 1, Part 1, February 8, 2021: First up in our new series is a new book by one of my all-time favorite authors, a former Protestant pastor and fellow convert to the Catholic Church, and whose books and talks played a large role in my conversion. It Is Right and Just, by Scott Hahn and Brandon McGinley.
BOTM 1, Part 2, February 15, 2021: Part 2 of It Is Right and Just, by Scott Hahn and Brandon McGinley. True religion is, always has been, and always will be a public thing.
BOTM 1, Part 3, February 22, 2021: Part 3 of It Is Right and Just, by Scott Hahn and Brandon McGinley. We were made to shine, not to hide. To light the way, not to give way.
Praying with Jesus and Faustina During Lent and in Times of Suffering
BOTM 2, Part 1 March 1, 2021: I’m pausing the Re-Reading the New Age series that would usually appear on the first of the month, so I can focus on Catholic spirituality during the Lenten and Easter seasons. So this evening we’ll begin looking at our second Catholic Book of the Month, Praying with Jesus and Faustina During Lent and in Times of Suffering, by Susan Tassone. I only got my copy tonight.
BOTM 2, Part 2, March 8, 2021: Time for Part 2 of our second Catholic Book of the Month, Praying with Jesus and Faustina During Lent and in Times of Suffering, by Susan Tassone. Includes a video of the EWTN Bookmark interview with Doug Keck and author Susan Tassone.
BOTM 2 Part 3, March 15, 2021: Taking a brief look at the section for today, the Fourth Monday of Lent, and chapter 2, Meditations on the Passion and the Way of the Cross with St. Faustina.
BOTM 2 Part 4, March 22, 2021: Welcome to part 4 of our Catholic Book of the Month for March 2021, Praying with Jesus and Faustina During Lent and in Times of Suffering, by Susan Tassone. I’m also going to include some things from the Marian site of the Divine Mercy to help us get ready for Holy Week.
Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls
BOTM 3 Part 1, April 2021: “The greatest archeological discovery of the 20th century gave the world the Dead Sea Scrolls. As the oldest sacred documents of Judaism, the scrolls have many surprising connections to early Christianity.” I can hardly wait to dig into Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls.
BOTM 3 Part 2, April 2021: Welcome to part 2 of our Catholic Book of the Month series, featuring Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls, by Dr. John Bergsma. I’ve got some more videos by Dr. Bergsma to share tonight. Topics he covers are the Jewish roots of the Church; Paul, works of the Law and the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Scrolls and the Reformation–should be some interesting. I haven’t watched these all the way through. Gonna get anotha cuppa and watch them now.
BOTM 3 Part 3, April 2021: Welcome to our Catholic Book of the Month series for April 2021, featuring Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls. We’ve got two vids by Dr. John Bergsma and one by Fr. Mitch Pacwa, SJ.
A Journey: Posting a Draft as I Write it
BOTM 4 Part 1, May 2021: A Journey Part 1, – Our Catholic Book of the Month for May is something a little different this time, something you can’t buy. Not yet, anyway. I’m working on a couple of books. One of them is a Rosary book, the other is a work of fiction based on the Gospels and some other sources. What follows here is a little exploration in imagination (and more of a vignette than a story at this point) that came to me when I sat down to write tonight’s post.
BOTM 4 Part 2, May 2021: A Journey, Part 2 – My experiment continues, writing my toward the story as my main character writes his story, too. Come along with me and we’ll see where it goes.
BOTM 4 Part 3, May 2021: A Journey, Part 3 – The journey and the experiment continue. Come along with me and let’s see where we end up. :)
BOTM 4 Part 4, May 2021: A Journey, Part 4 – The journey continues. I’m writing a book and working my way into the writing, which is what this experiment is, a journey into the writing. Come along with me on a journey of discovery as I figure out where we’re going. :)
BOTM 4 Part 5, May 2021: A Journey, Part 5 – The journey continues. I’m writing a book and working my way into the writing, which is what this experiment is, a journey into the writing. Come along with me on a journey of discovery as I figure out where we’re going. :)
BOTM 4 Part 6, May 2021: A Journey, Part 6 – The journey continues. I’m writing a book and working my way into the writing, which is what this experiment is, a journey into the writing. Come along with me on a journey of discovery as I figure out where we’re going. :)
BOTM 4 Part 7, May 2021: A Journey, Part 7 – Yeah, the journey continues, I’m writing a book, who knows where I’m going with it, yada yada yada. Go read it already. Or do the sane thing and back up outta here. ;)
BOTM 4 Part 8, May 2021: A Journey, Part 8 – Yep, the journey continues. Now if I would just remember to put the links on the TOC like I’m supposed to. Oy!
BOTM 4 Part 9, May 2021: A Journey, Part 9 – Welcome to Part 9 (probably the longest post) of the continuing story of A Journey, which began in my mind as a short story for Holy Week but morphed into something larger and is still morphing even now. (It even goes back further than that when I first had this idea to write a novel for National Novel Writing Month, but I didn’t get far with it then.) I’m writing the rough draft moments before I post it here on the blog, and just so’s you know, I really do mean rough when I say that. I have already made a list of a bunch of things that I’ll likely change in the re-write(s) and some things to experiment with some more. This whole adventure is a way to come up with the raw material to work with, like digging for my own clay and then working with it to discover what’s hidden there and how to work with it to bring out what is hidden within it. The more I write this story, the more I discover about it. Okay, enough of that. Let’s go. See ya on the other side. :)
Now that May is over and A Journey has turned into more than a month-long project, you can find links to new posts on the new Fiction section of the blog.
Image above: A possible cover for the novel in progress, which will change oodles of times as the story morphs on its way to becoming an actual novel and not a rough rough rough ROUGH draft.
Sanctity Through the Rosary
BOTM 5 Part 1, October 2021: Our Book of the Month for October is Sanctity Through the Rosary, by Fr. Édouard Hugon, OP: Introduction. You can get a printed copy of a free PDF using the links at the end of the post.
BOTM 5 Part 2, October 2021: Part 2 of the Book of the Month for October 2021, Sanctity Through the Rosary, by Fr. Édouard Hugon, OP: The Rosary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I do love good old Catholic books. I need all the help, spiritual and otherwise, that I can get!
BOTM 5 Part 3, October 2021: Part 3 of the Book of the Month for October 2021, Sanctity Through the Rosary, by Fr. Édouard Hugon, OP: The Rosary and the Knowledge of Jesus. I do love good old Catholic books.
BOTM 5 Part 4, October 2021: Part 4 of the Book of the Month for October 2021, Sanctity Through the Rosary, by Fr. Édouard Hugon, OP: The Rosary and the Grace of Jesus. I do love good old Catholic books.
BOTM 5 Part 5, October 2021: Part 5 of the Book of the Month for October 2021, Sanctity Through the Rosary, by Fr. Édouard Hugon, OP:
BOTM 5 Part 6, October 2021: Part 6 of the Book of the Month for October 2021, Sanctity Through the Rosary, by Fr. Édouard Hugon, OP:
BOTM 5 Part 7, November 2021: Part 7 of the Book of the Month, continuing in November 2021, Sanctity Through the Rosary, by Fr. Édouard Hugon, OP:
BOTM 5 Part 8, November 2021: Part 8 of the Book of the Month, continuing in November 2021, Sanctity Through the Rosary, by Fr. Édouard Hugon, OP.
BOTM 5 Part 9, November 2021: Part 9 of the Book of the Month, continuing in November 2021, Sanctity Through the Rosary, by Fr. Édouard Hugon, OP. This week: Part Two, Models of Holiness, Section Four, the Rosary and St. Joseph.
BOTM 5 Part 10, December 2021: Part 10 of the Book of the Month, continuing in December 2021, Sanctity Through the Rosary, by Fr. Édouard Hugon, OP. This week: Part Three, The Rosary and the Practice of Holiness; Section One: The Rosary, A Source of Holiness.
BOTM 5 Part 11, December 2021: Part 11 of the Book of the Month, continuing in December 2021, Sanctity Through the Rosary, by Fr. Édouard Hugon, OP. This week: Part Three, The Rosary and the Practice of Holiness; Section Two: The Rosary and Ordinary Holiness.
BOTM 5 Part 12, December 2021: Part 12 of the Book of the Month, continuing in December 2021, Sanctity Through the Rosary, by Fr. Édouard Hugon, OP. This week: Part Three, The Rosary and the Practice of Holiness; Section Three: The Rosary and Perfect Holiness.
BOTM 5 Part 13, December 2021: Part 13 of the Book of the Month, continuing in December 2021, Sanctity Through the Rosary, by Fr. Édouard Hugon, OP. This week: Part Three, The Rosary and the Practice of Holiness; Section Four: The Rosary and Heroic Holiness. This ends this book for now.
Quest for Holiness or I wanna be a SAINT: Introduction to the Spiritual Life
BOTM 6 Part 1 January 2022: Part 1 of Introduction to the Spiritual Life: Walking the Path of Prayer with Jesus,, by Brant Pitre. I can’t help but think that it’s significant that we are beginning our new Quest on the day the Church used to celebrate as the Feast of the Epiphany, which was a day and a season. (For more about that, see my last post with notes and links.) Our Quest is to learn how to truly live as Catholics, how to grow in the spiritual life, how to let the Lord and His Church show us the Way.
BOTM 6 Part 2 January 2022: In Part 2 of our sixth Catholic Book of the Month, Introduction to the Spiritual Life: Walking the Path of Prayer with Jesus, by Brant Pitre, we are preparing to set out on the Quest, getting a feel for the lay of the land. I hope you’ll join me!
BOTM 6 Part 3 January 2022: In Part 3 of our sixth Book of the Month, Introduction to the Spiritual Life: Walking the Path of Prayer with Jesus, Brant Pitre shows us that vocal prayer, meditation & contemplation have always been part of the Judeo-Christian way.
BOTM 6 Part 4 January 2022: In Part 4 we are getting ready to take our first step in our Quest for the spiritual life, truly spiritual true devotion. Come along with me!
BOTM 6 Part 5 February 2022: In Part 5 we begin to learn about The Way and how to walk in The Way, keeping the Commandments as the way to remain in the Covenant.
BOTM 6 Part 6 February 2022: In part 6 of our Catholic Book of the Month we look at the three temptations and the three remedies Jesus gives us so that we may conquer them.
BOTM 6 Part 7 February 2022: In part 7 of our Catholic Book of the Month we look at the first of the three remedies Jesus gives us so that we may conquer the three temptations: fasting.
BOTM 6 Part 8 February 2022: In part 8 of our Catholic Book of the Month we look at the second of the three remedies Jesus gives us so that we may conquer the three temptations: almsgiving.
BOTM 6 Part 9 March 2022: In part 9 of our Catholic Book of the Month we look at the first of the three remedies Jesus gives us so that we may conquer the three temptations: prayer.
BOTM 6 Part 10 March 2022: In the preceding weeks we’ve learned about the spiritual exercises of fasting, almsgiving and prayer that Jesus gave us in His Sermon on the Mount, to conquer (always with His grace and the sacramental life of the Church) the three temptations of pleasure, possessions and pride. Now we’ll begin to learn about the virtues and vices.
BOTM 6 Part 11 March 2022: In part 11 we’ll look at the first capital sin, pride, and its remedy, humility.
BOTM 6 Part 12 March 2022: Last week we saw that humility is the remedy for the number one capital sin, pride. Tonight in part 12 we’ll look at another capital sin, envy, and its remedy, mercy.
BOTM 6 Part 13 March 2022: In part 13 of our quest we’ll look at the third capital sin, anger, and its remedy. Not all anger, mind you, only the sinful kind. Anger can be righteous, aimed at preserving or obtaining justice, whereas sinful anger desires to harm someone for vengeance and flows from pride. It also flows from impatience. I think we can see this all around us, especially online these days. But there is an antidote as we will soon see. What follows is based on chapter 13 of the Intro.
BOTM 6 Part 14 April 7 2022: In part 14 we’ll look at the cardinal sin of avarice or greed–not mere desire but the disordered and irrational desire to possess or for possessions, one of the “most spiritually dangerous of all the vices” because of the way it “affects the human heart”–and we’ll discover its remedy, generosity. Come along with me and let’s become saints together!
BOTM 6 Part 15 April 14 2022: In part 15 we’ll look at lust, the disordered desire for sexual pleasure, and its remedy, chastity, to be chaste, to have a clean and pure heart, to be set apart for holiness. One who is not chaste is not going to be holy, not until one turns away from the sin of lust and toward the Lord by striving to be chaste.
BOTM 6 Part 16 April 21 2022: I’m on a Quest to become a saint, Come along & let’s become saints together! In pt 16 of this series we’ll look at the sixth capital sin, gluttony, and discover its remedy, temperance. (Good thing we just went through Lent. This one is a toughie!)
BOTM 6 Part 17 April 28 2022: In part 17 we’ll be looking at the capital sin of sloth and its remedy, diligence. I think I just found my predominant fault. But then I’ve thought that every one of the past few weeks. Sigh.
BOTM 6 Part 18 May 5 2022: In part 18 we’ll look at sorrow, the eighth (yes, eighth) capital sin, and its remedy: patience. And not all sorrow is sinful but a certain kind of sorrow is not only sinful but sin of the mortal kind.
BOTM 6 Part 19 May 12 2022: In Part 19 we’ll begin to learn how to spot the vices and apply the virtues as remedies by practicing the examination of conscience. Time to make some progress in the spiritual life!
BOTM 6 Part 20 May 19 2022: In Part 20 we’ll learn about “the second key to making progress in our spiritual life,” the regular (ack! That’s the part I have problems with!) practice of meditation on Scripture. I need this!
BOTM 6 Part 21 May 26 2022: In part 21 we’ll look at the battle of prayer. And if you’ve ever tried to cultivate your prayer life, then you know it really is a battle.
BOTM 6 Part 22 June 2 2022: With Part 22 we come to the end of our latest book of the month, looking at the last two sections, the Dark Night and the Living Water. I will be taking a break over the summer to devote time to some music and writing projects. The Friday Rosary on Twitter will continue. Posts here will pick back up in the fall.
Back to All Series TOC
Catholic Heart and Mind 