Meet Pope Francis

Here's a great little video about Pope Francis from CatholicLink:

More on Pope Francis:

• Francis: Pope of a New World, Tornielli, Andrea
• Pray for Me: The Life and Spiritual Vision of Pope Francis, First Pope from the Americas, Moynihan, Robert

Jacob's Ladder: Answering the Big Questions

Have you ever asked yourself one of these types of questions:

• Why am I here?
• What is my purpose?
• What is truth? (Made famous by Pontius Pilate)
• Does God exist?
• Can you prove God exists?

Most of us at some point in our lives have asked one of these or similar questions. Philosophers call these the Big Questions. If you are looking for a good, accessible book to read to help you with these questions, look no further. Peter Kreeft, who is a philosopher and professor at Boston College, has written a new book entitled Jacob's Ladder: 10 Steps to Truth, published by Ignatius Press. This is NOT a theology book, but instead it is a book about finding God through reason. Contrary to what the secular culture says, faith and reason are not incompatible and Kreeft points that out. (See Blessed Pope John Paul II's encyclical, Faith and Reason for more on this subject.)

I have not personally read the entire book, but the reviews of the book by trusted Catholics like Patrick Madrid, Mark Shea and Father Spitzer have been wonderful. I have read some of Kreeft's other works and one of his greatest strengths is the ability to take "heady" material and apply an ordinary, every day approach to explaining things. We Joe Catholics can get on board with that.

Check out the book trailer. The book is available for pre-order at Ignatius Press or Amazon, or you can buy it at a local Catholic book store soon.

Pro-Life Resources

Today marks the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion through all nine months of pregnancy. It also marks the annual March for Life in Washington D.C. and across the United States. I don't have a lot to add to the commentary offered up by better advocates than me. I've listed a few resources on the subject to help you better understand Church teaching and how to communicate to your family and friends, both Catholic and non-Catholic.

BOOKS

Recall Abortion, Janet Morana which will be released in a couple of days. Morana is the Executive Director of Priests for Life, co-founder of Silent No More and co-hosts Catholic View for Women on EWTN. This is what the notes from the publisher say:

Abortion Harms Women. Bad products are recalled every day: the Ford Pinto, faulty tires, dangerous prescription pills, contaminated lettuce. If a product is found to pose even a modest risk to those who use it, you can bet it will soon be pulled from the market . . .

Unless that product is abortion.

Every abortion kills an unborn child. But more, abortion harms women - risking the health and well-being of those who all too often are conned and coerced into making this terrible choice. If it were any other product, abortion would have been removed from the market long ago.

In RECALL ABORTION, author Janet Morana exposes the myriad ways abortion exploits women, and calls for a national recall of this deadly procedure. She documents the way abortion risks and degrades women's health. And she exposes the false promises and lies by which it is pushed and sold.

Morana also investigates abortion's debilitating after-effects, and gives a voice to those women who have chosen abortion and have regretted it. These testimonies (so often silenced by the abortion industry) are a powerful and sometimes heartbreaking glimpse into the real suffering abortion causes, including deep depression and lasting physical and emotional scars.

Abortion does not empower women. It is not health care. It harms women severely.

Isn't it time we recalled abortion?

Peter Kreeft offers a logical, pragmatic approach in his book Three Approaches to Abortion: A Thoughtful Compassionate Guide to Today's Most Controversial Issue. Kreeft is a philosophy professor at Boston College and a prolific writer. You can find most of his books at Ignatius Press, which should tell you something about the quality and authentic nature of his work. Here is an excerpt from his book:

Abortion is the single most divisive public issue of our time, as slavery was for the nineteenth century, or as prohibition was for the 1920's. Intelligent, committed pro-lifers will not be satisfied in principle with anything less than the legal prohibition, or abolition, of all abortion (though most pro-lifers are pragmatic enough to accept partial abolitions as incremental steps toward that goal). And intelligent, committed pro-choicers understand this and resist, also in principle, any of these incremental steps. Pro-lifers find it intolerable that the most innocent and vulnerable members of our society and our species are legally slaughtered. Pro-choicers find it intolerable that women be forced by law to bear unwanted children against their will. Neither side can or will budge, in principle. [NOTE: For an extended preview go to the Inside Scoop.]

ONLINE RESOURCES

• USCCB - Collection of Articles on Church Teaching on Abortion
• Peter Kreeft - The Apple Argument Against Abortion,  A non-religious approach to the debate
• Priests for Life - A comprehensive website with media and articles for pro-life activism.
• Rachel's Vineyard - Ministry designed to aid families heal from the suffering from the aftermath of abortion. Provides retreats and resources.
• Silent No More - Campaign to bring true awareness to the issue of abortion through real life testimonies of people who participated in abortions.

VATICAN DOCUMENTS

• Humanae vitae - Pope Paul VI's encyclical which prophesied the culture of death.
• Gaudium et spes - Vatican II document on the Church in the modern world. It goes into great detail in explaining and outlining the dignity of man and how it must be respected and preserved.

Recommended Reading from Gathering

It occurred to me that I should start posting separately all the book resources I recommend during the gatherings. So beginning today, I will post recommended reading on the 1st and 3rd Sundays of each month following our normal gatherings. If you click on the titles, the link will take you to the appropriate Amazon page to review the books.

Anima Christi: Soul of Christ, Sister Mary Francis

Handbook of Catholic Apologetics: Reasoned Answers to Questions of Faith, Peter Kreeft

Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives, Pope Benedict XVI

Introduction to the Devout Life

We recently celebrated the feast day of St. Francis de Sales who is the patron of writers (presumably this would include bloggers). One of the great gifts he has given the Church is his spiritual classic, Introduction to the Devout Life (At the end of the post, I provide additional links for obtaining a copy of the book).

Last month, I recommended Be a Man! by Father Larry Richards as a starting point for implementing consistent, daily, planned spiritual reading. I chose that title because it was written specifically for men of the laity. I have chosen Introduction to the Devout Life (IDL) for the same reason. It was written with the  laity in mind.

St. Francis de Sales was ahead of his time. The idea of the universal call to holiness is common to us now, but the laity of the 16th Century were not privy to this teaching. St. Francis actually addresses this in his Preface:

"But my object is to teach those who are living in towns, at court, in their own households, and whose calling obliges them to a social life, so far as externals are concerned. Such persons are apt to reject all attempt to lead a devout life under the plea of impossibility[.]" (vi)

St. Francis actually wrote that "it is not however, my own choice or wish which brings this Introduction before the public" (vii). He was instead urged by a "devout Religious" to publish the work.

In IDL, de Sales describes devotion as that guide that “not only leads us to do well, but to act carefully, diligently, and promptly” (p. 3). St. Francis de Sales directs a person to ponder Jacob’s Ladder, in order to help a person understand how to progress from simply doing good to doing good carefully, frequently and instinctively. He asserts the two poles of this spiritual ladder are meditative prayer, which seeks God’s love, and the second is the Sacraments, which dispense God’s love. The rungs of the ladder are the virtues and graces by which we ascend to join God’s love or descend to share His love with others in acts of mercy and charity.

St. Francis organized IDL into meditations. The meditations suggested by St. Francis de Sales act as instruments of purification, but are not themselves the purifying agent. Neither does the one who meditates purify himself, but rather the meditations prepare the soul to accept God’s sanctifying grace. When the meditations are obediently performed “they (by God’s Grace) will root out both sin and its affections from your heart (XIII, p. 24). As sin is abandoned and the will of God embraced, we seek to know, love and serve God. The CCC (2706) teaches, “to the extent that we are humble and faithful, we discover in meditation the movements that stir the heart and we are able to discern them.” This process stirs us to ask the question, "Lord, what do you want me to do?”

Introduction to the Devout Life - Multiple Formats (Some FREE!)
Online Searchable - Christian Classic Ethereal Library

PDF - CCEL

mp3 - CCEL (Recorded by a volunteer but adequate quality to supplement study.)

eBook - Amazon (Kindle)

Paperback - Aquinas & More