Book Review: Thriving Faith: Discipleship in Uncertain Times by Fr. James Mallon

This is a book of encouragement for parishioners, pastors and parish leadership teams who feel overwhelmed by the changes in society and in the Church, whether those changes are because we are no longer living in Christendom culture or because our parish communities are being reconfigured and merged. Yes, God is still in charge, and the scriptures still speak.

This little book is best read with a small discussion group or even as a parish leadership team. Each chapter leads with a key scripture passage which Fr. Mallon unpacks through stories of his own experiences and challenges the readers to examine how they are personally called to respond to God's call to discipleship. These are stories of trusting in the love and mercy of God and of challenges overcome with the grace of God.

In light of the scripture passages, and the stories and teaching by Fr. Mallon, and the reflections of our personal experience and call, we are then invited to examine our parish community, and how we may be called to respond to the needs and desires in our community, the vision of our parish and how Jesus can work in and through us to build up a parish of thriving faith and discipleship.

If you are looking for encouragement in times of confusion or doubt, gather a few friends and allow the book Thriving Faith: Discipleship in Uncertain Times to allow you to rediscover your identity as a beloved child of God who has a mission, which if accepted in trust will lead you to joy on the journey of faith.

ARCHIVE OF PAST REVIEWS

Bishop Prevost on Evangelization  

In 2012, after the Synod on Evangelization, Bishop Robert Prevost (now Pope Leo XIV) was interviewed by Catholic News Service about evangelization: 

A great deal has changed in 13 years: At the time of the interview, Pope Benedict XVI was still pope. TikTok didn't exist. Streaming services like Netflix, Hulu and Disney+ were just beginning to disrupt and fragment media consumption. Most people had not heard about AI. COVID was still years away. The world and our politics were much less polarized.  Yet, despite all the cultural changes and upheavals, a lot of the topics in this interview are still pertinent today. 

Some of the points to reflect on from this interview: 

• The primary role of a personal encounter with Jesus Christ and the challenge of helping people discover God's presence and what a relationship with Christ means in our life. 
• The role of media in evangelization and also the need for formation in media literacy, discernment in use and consumption of media. 
• The need for Adult Faith Formation and how to reach those people who have left the practice of the faith. 
• How to move away from an individualistic view of faith (me and God) to our experience of God to move us to a human solidarity and concern for others. 

There is much more in this interview, and it is well worth 30 minutes of your time.  

The Office of Evangelization has many resources available to help your parish or group create opportunities for encounter, for entering into the mystery of who God is and what our response should be, how we as individuals and as parishes can witness to what Christ has done for us and how we can share that love with all we meet.  

Book Review:
For the Life of the World: Invited to Eucharistic Mission
By Bishop Andrew Cozzens and Tim Glemkowski

I received a free review copy of a little book, For the Life of the World: Invited to Eucharistic Mission, by Bishop Andrew Cozzens and Tim Glemkowski, and I let it sit on my desk for quite some time. I was in the middle of two other books that seemed more interesting. Then I finished one of those books (a big and heavy tome) and thought, let’s have a look at this little, skinny book that I can finish in a day or so.

I am on day 6 of reading this little book. It’s not because it is a difficult read, not because it is a struggle to understand the content, but it’s because I want to savor it and take it to prayer, preferably before the Blessed Sacrament. I also wish I had friends who were reading it at the same time, so we could go and grab a cup of coffee and discuss and share our reflections.

And this is why I am writing a recommendation for a book I haven’t finished reading yet. This little book has ten short chapters, written in language that does not require a theological dictionary or advanced college degrees. Each chapter ends with two or three reflection questions that are great to bring to Eucharistic Adoration for prayer but would be perfect for small group sharing. It leads the reader from encountering Jesus in the Eucharist to living our Eucharistic identity in a Eucharistic life leading to sharing our love of the Jesus in the Eucharist with those we meet on our pilgrimage through life.

For parishes, this little book could be a great for starting a small faith sharing group or for forming a core group for starting (or deepening) Eucharistic Adoration in the parish. It could serve as adult faith formation for parishioners who may not yet be disciples as part of a discipleship pathway. For parishes running Alpha, this could be a resource for the question of “what’s next?”

If you have encountered Jesus in the Eucharist, or if you would like to get to know him on a deeper level, pick up a handful of copies of this book and start a small group to read, reflect and share, and then invite a few more people to come and encounter the love of Jesus in the Eucharist.
PS: The publisher (OSV) does offer bulk rates for parishes that may want to order copies.

ARCHIVE OF PAST REVIEWS

BOOK REVIEW:

Behold, Believe, Become: Meeting the Hidden Christ in Things We See, Say, and Do at Mass.

Author: Timothy P. O’Malley
Ave Maria Press

We are in the midst of the Eucharistic Revival. This is the third book in the series on the Eucharist by Timothy O’Malley. The first two book (The Real Presence and Becoming Eucharistic People) were aimed more at parish leadership and catechists and focused primarily on the theology of the Eucharist and the Culture of a Eucharistic parish.

This book is squarely aimed at the person in the pew, and it connects everyday life to the celebration of Mass. One thing we have lost in our secular, technological culture is a sense of wonder. We often fail to be amazed at the beauty of creation, the awesomeness of the universe and even the fact that the sun rises in the morning, and we fail to realize every day is another opportunity to love our neighbor and worship our God.

This little book connects the so-called ordinary things in our life that we often take for granted to the physical things in our churches and to the extraordinary things that happen at Mass. One example is a door. To enter the church, we cross the threshold by opening and going through a door. But every time we go through a door, we leave one space and we enter another. Think about coming home at the end of a long hectic day, opening the door to your home, and feeling a sense of peace where you can finally breathe and relax. Similarly, think of entering through the church door, perhaps leaving a noisy street filled with traffic and entering into the quiet of the church, filled with colors of light passing through stained glass and being able to just BE in the real presence of God.  In addition to a chapter on the door, there are chapters on the font, the nave, words, the altar, candlelight and incense, and many other “ordinary” extraordinary things we take for granted.  The book uses these elements to connect our daily life to worshiping the God who is Life.

In addition to the book, there are 15 very short videos, one for each chapter, available on the Ave Maria Press YouTube channel. For example:

I highly recommend this book for personal meditation, discussion and perhaps looking at the world and the church with eyes of renewed wonder and awe.

ARCHIVE OF PAST REVIEWS

BOOK REVIEW: 

From Christendom to Apostolic Mission: Pastoral Strategies for an Apostolic Age
Author: Msgr. James P. Shea
University of Mary Press

I finally got around to reading this gem of a book: it is short and to the point.

Do you know people who are discouraged about the faith and the state of the Church? Do you know people who are questioning why the transmission of faith that worked for them (CCD classes, going to Church on Sunday, praying the rosary) no longer works today, why it is so hard to raise our kids to be Catholics, and the fact that people are disaffiliating from the faith? Do you know people who are lamenting the polarization in the Church or who live on one of the extreme ends of the spectrum?

This book offers a good start to explain why our old strategies of evangelization and passing on the faith don’t seem to work the same way they used to: our culture and the corresponding worldview has changed. The Christendom culture whose values in many ways aligned with Christian values and worldview provided a scaffolding for faith and allowed faith to float on the culture with an occasional correction (like floating downstream in a canoe, occasionally paddling to keep going in the correct current). Today’s culture no longer supports Church values, and we are, as it were, paddling upstream while not being immune to our culture’s values of power and efficiency and comfort. Faith has become a quest and a challenge.

But we are not without hope! We need to change our strategy to meet the challenges of today. We need a conversion of mind and a new way of seeing. Our culture has altered our way of looking at the world, and the role of evangelization is to “present the Gospel in such a way that hearers can be transformed and see in a new way.” To do so, we need to understand the age in which we live and cooperate with the Holy Spirit, who is still at work calling us to a new Pentecost.

I would highly recommend this little book (it’s less than a 100 pages) to anyone who is interested in the mission and vision of the Church and participating in the adventure to which the Holy Spirit is calling us.

Bonus: If you are anxious, discouraged, Msgr. James P. Shea gave a marvelous keynote address at Seek2024 speaking to a crowd of college students and young adults:

ARCHIVE OF PAST REVIEWS