Integrity

Forthcoming Book Review

This is a first, and a definite treat.  Today, I received an email from Requiem Press offering to send me a review copy of Russell Shaw's new book, "Catholic Laity in the Mission of the Church".  It looks interesting and it definitely appears to be in the spirit of this blog's mission.  I look forward to receiving it and, once I have read it, will certainly post a review and some thoughts.  Thanks, Jim, for the offer!

Book Meme

Well, Sharon over at Clairity's Place has provoked me out of my temporary blog hiatus by tagging me for a book meme.

1) Total number of books I own:  A guess only, but I would say around 600.  The real question is how many have I read.

2)  The last book I bought: Introduction to Christianity by then Cardinal Ratzinger.

3)  The last book I read: God At The Ritz:  Attraction to Infinity by Lorenzo Albacete.

4)  Five books that mean a lot to me:

• Like all other CL bloggers, I will count Luigi Giussani's trilogy as one:  The Religious Sense, At The Origin of the Christian Claim and Why the Church?.
• Flap Your Wings by P.D. Eastman.  The first book I was ever passionate about.  Had the wonderful privilege a year ago of introducing my goddaughter to this book with her own copy.
• Sadness of Christ by St. Thomas More.
• Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien.
• Christifideles Laici by Pope John Paul II.  You really didn't think I was going to leave this exhortation of the list, did you?  I mean, it is the reason why Integrity exists, after all.

5) Tag five people:  my good friends bnug over at 1000 Monkeys Typing and TAW over at Mantric Ramblings (maybe this will convince him to post something!), Steve over at Reformissionary,  Tom over at Disputations and David over at Sed Contra .

The Apostleship of Praise

From The Everyday Apostle by Fr. Edward F. Gareshé

Another apostleship that Fr. Gareshé discusses is the Apostleship of Praise.   Fr. Gareshé begins by distinguishing this apostleship with the Apostleship of Encouragement (which we discussed in a previous post).  Encouragement does not necessarily require praise; but it is difficult to praise in the manner Fr. Gareshé desires without providing encouragement.

Praise is something that we deal with in our practical daily lives.  This is important to recognize.  One of the great things about Fr. Gareshé's reflections is that they do not live in the abstract.  We daily are involved in the giving and receiving of praise (and its opposite, blame).  In fact, if you are like me, I think honesty requires that we say we find it hard to resist making such judgments.  And these judgments have influence. 

Ah, What's One More

I have so many books on my shelves that I haven't read.  Hundreds.  Every few months I vow that I won't buy another book until I have read the majority of the ones that I already own.  But then comes word of some new book.   And the flesh becomes weak.

And history repeats itself again.  If you took my earlier advice, you have made a regular habit of visiting Clairity's Place.  Sharon has been posting reflections drawn from Pope John Paul II's last book, Memory and Identity.   She's created a fascinating collection, which is worth your time, and makes a great case that the late pontiff's book is, too. 

Clairity's Place's Reflections:

• Mysterium Iniquitatis
• Redemptor Hominis
• Freedom and Mercy
• The Origins of Culture
• The Contemporary Encounter with Christ
• The Church and Democracy
• Mary: Memory of Christ
• Vertical History

The Apostleship Of The Common Man

From The Everyday Apostle by Fr. Edward F. Gareshé

The first apostleship that Fr. Gareshé discusses is the Apostleship of the Common Man.   I appreciate his starting here, because he aptly diagnoses a human tendency:  a desire to be "uncommon, unusual or exceptional".  Now, I suppose for some I must explain why this can be a problem.  After all, don't we encourage our kids to  dream big?  Why is wanting to do great things for the glory of God a weakness?  What concerns  Fr. Gareshé is how we react if we learn that our vision of what would be extraordinary differs from God's.  How then do we view the "common, ordinary and usual" work that God places before us?  Do we denigrate it?  Do we fall into despair?

So Fr. Gareshé sets to task to convince us of the virtues of the common man:

Everyday Apostle

Digging into the depths of Integrity's Vault of Records, I stumbled across this post from 2002 talking about a great book, The Everyday Apostle, by Fr. Edward F. Gareshé.

What is so wonderful about this little book is that it uses the language of apostleship to speak about many ordinary things.  Fr. Gareshé doesn't make the mistake of "dumbing down" Christianity, as can often be the case when people relate the Gospel to commonplace activities.  Instead, he provides a glimpse of what ordinary things, like encouragement, hospitality, character, and counsel, can become when fused with one's life in Christ.

To take one example, consider what Fr. Gareshé refers to as the apostleship of encouragement.