Good-bye!

But only through July!

So don't cry!

(Cute rhyme, no?)

Well, this is my swan song for a month, for both blog and facebook. I will miss you all terribly, and I can't wait to be back in August to start up the conversation again. I will be refreshed and renewed -- hopefully my house will get a clean-out -- and I will be ready for the fight to get Obama voted out of office. (Girls in town, when that happens, can we have the biggest party evah?)

Anyway, what will I be doing on my July bloggy fast? Well, it seems like a dream, but I plan to finish reading two books that I started months ago.

From Atheism to Catholicism: How Scientists and Philosophers Led Me to the Truth

and

The Twelve: The Lives of the Apostles After Calvary

Also, thanks to wonderful Abigail who will guide me, I will be reading something the soul craaaaaaves:

The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross

If possible, I will finally read one of the books that has been recommended by people I greatly admire. It is a commentary on Pope Benedict XVI's September 12, 2006, University of Regensburg lecture, which made news and caused a violent uproar when one quotation was taken out of context. The pope's address has been called "genius", and is a fascinating response to the challenges facing us moderns, examining politics, religion (including Islam), reason, man, and God. I may need my 23-year-old pre-pregnancy brain back in order to grasp this one, but I'm going to try:

The Regensburg Lecture

I also really, truly, desperately want to redo the Total Consecration with my husband. We did our first Consecration about 16 years ago, and it was the most amazing spiritual time in our marriage. It was five weeks of floating on grace. Will we have the discipline to do it again? Ah, there's the question! I'll let you know.

Okay, some of you have asked me to recommend blogs for reading while I'm gone, and that's a toughie. I love my blog roll, so feel free to peruse that list of gems, which include mommy blogs, adoption blogs, infertility blogs, and of course just your straight up Catholic blogs.

Now, if you like Catholic discussion in same vein as we do here, you might want to visit Devin Rose and/or Stacy Trasancos, as they are masters of reason, lovers of truth, and have juicy comment threads. Also, Ignitum Today is a great community blog where young adult Catholics congregate, and New Advent will keep you clicking through the best of Catholic commentary and blogs all day (it's dangerous for me to access that page, because then my day is shot).

And if you have any questions on the Catholic Faith, Catholic morality, Catholic apologetics, Catholic history, or anything Catholic, please ask our own JoAnna Wahlund, who is not only 143 times smarter than I, but who happens to be blog-sitting while I'm away. She's handling it all… I've given her the keys to the Bubble, and she will keep it clean and shiny until I return.

Also, don't forget the ample archives of the Bubble, which you can find under "Blog Archive" on the right, going back two years. Dig around! There's some good stuff you might have missed, including these serial posts that should keep you busy for a while:

My real life correspondence with an abortionist

My correspondence with a sex educator

Thoughts on the Church sex scandal

And of course, the whole host of Little Teachings from the Bubble is worth a look.

If you should actually reeeeeally miss me, please consider a love offering to my memory by throwing a couple of bucks into one (or both?) of these families' funds. They are One More Smith (remember Malcolm??) and Journey to Reunite Two Angels (if you tell Sylvia of your donation, you can be entered to win an iPad). I love these people. You can donate from this page directly with the links below, and donations are tax deductible:



And to keep a promise I made to a very special friend (and a friend of the orphans), I am going to keep Holly's picture here for the break, so that her beautiful face can be seen by all, including, I hope, her mommy and daddy. They are out there, and they simply need to see her, and fall in love with those big, green eyes. Click the photo for more information about this beautiful girl in need of a family:

Are you my mama? I am giggly and outgoing! I will make a good daughter!

Okay, folks, see you in August! I hope you are all still here when I get back! And if there are two or three of you who truly cannot live a month without me, you can email me or come see me on my other blog, where I will be lightly posting and checking in from time to time.

OH!! And don't forget to do all your Amazon shopping through the link at the very bottom of this blog (all the way down there!), because I'm giving 100% of the proceeds to the orphans and the families bringing them home.

XOXOXOXOXOXO!

Miss you already!

Wish you were here!


:)




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Recommendations for your Catholic library!

Finally, I have begun my promised (preliminary) list of book recommendations! This page is a work in progress, and it will change over time. When it is all done being a regular post, I will permanently link it to the top of my blog, and I will alert you to any important changes or additions as they happen.

Here we go….

+++++++

Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic, by David Currie

 

This is the book I constantly recommend for Protestant evangelicals who are thinking of becoming Catholic, or for Catholics who desire to speak to Protestant evangelicals about Catholic beliefs. It's simple and thorough, written to members of Currie's own dismayed family upon his conversion to Catholicism, in language that they could understand.

The chapter on "Authority Focused" is worth the price of the book, as it historically illustrates (with charts and stories, in a way I've never seen before) the breathtaking protection from heresy that the Holy Spirit has provided to the Bishop of Rome (the Pope) throughout the centuries.

+++++++

Any Friend of God's is a Friend of Mine, by Patrick Madrid

By far the most common questions I get from Protestants are question about the Communion of Saints: Praying to saints (more accurately, asking them to pray for us), statues vs. idols, relics, prayers for the dead and Purgatory, honoring Mary, etc. Anything and everything about the saints and their connection to us is discussed, and common Protestant objections are addressed with Scripture, history and logic.

I love, love, love that this book is short and clear and easy to read. Excellent resource!

+++++++

Handbook of Christian Apologetics, by Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli

This is that book you need when answering atheists, secularists and skeptics on the big issues of God and Christianity. Using Aristotelian logic, Kreeft and Tacelli (philosophy professors) bring clarity to questions such as:

Do faith and reason conflict?

Does God exist?

How can God allow evil?

Is there life after death?

Was Jesus raised from the dead?

Is Christianity the only true religion?

... and more.

If you love sound reasoning, clarity, the Socratic method, and intellectual rigor, you'll love reading through the chapters of the book (which can be read in any order). It's especially helpful when you have teenagers in the house! 

Handbook of Christian Apologetics was written from a "mere Christianity" (Protestant and Catholic) perspective; later the authors produced Handbook of Catholic Apologetics, and from what I've heard, it's quite similar to the first book, but with some Catholic specifics. Get either one as a staple for your library.

+++++++

The Spirit of Catholicism, by Karl Adam

A classic (first edition was in 1924), a personal favorite, and one of the only books I've read twice. Absolutely beautiful presentation of the Catholic Faith, almost poetic. I really cannot say enough about it. 

+++++++

The Prove It! books for teens, by Amy Welborn

If your teens are asking the bigger questions about the Catholic Church (or God and Jesus in general), send one or more of these books their way. No nonsense, to the point, just the kind of clarity their seeking minds crave in this era of fuzzy thinking. Adults who need answers will get a lot out of the series, too.

+++++++

The Ordinary Path to Holiness, by R. Thomas Richard

I described this earlier as a book that changed my life. Why don't Catholics know about the three traditional stages of holiness anymore? Well, now you have no excuse. It cleared up so much for me, and suddenly, the path to holiness was visible -- even somewhat linear -- and made sense. I could get my bearings and identify where I was (not too far on that path, ha ha) and where I needed to go. I'm not even close to the goal, but at least I see the road and all the signposts.

+++++++

The Way of the Disciple, by Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis

When young, serene, beautiful cloistered nuns get positively schoolgirl-giddy while recommending a book to me, I listen! I immediately bought and read this great work and was as enthralled as they were. In this book, the reader is placed as an unseen witnesses in the midst of six familiar gospel scenes and is given new insight into what it means to be a disciple of Christ. The chapter on the woman at the well ("The Abandoned Pitcher") has never left me. I imagine it leaves most Christian women swooning. Little book, huge impact.

+++++++

Gut Check: Confronting Love, Work, and Manhood in Your Twenties, by Tarek Saab

Anyone who knows me in real life has heard me decry the catastrophic "crisis of manhood" that has befallen our men and our culture. Tarek Saab (a former contestant on The Apprentice who is also supernaturally handsome incredibly wise) has written the story of his own crisis, in a brutally honest manner that young men (late teens and up) will appreciate. Tarek went on a humbling journey from confused college kid to materially successful businessman to devout Catholic. The parents of sons will also benefit from reading his story.

+++++++

Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, edited by Scott Hahn

As the wonderful Gayle Somers told me a few months back: No Catholic apologist should be without this study Bible on his shelf. Enough said.

+++++++

Books I have reviewed previously on the Bubble (and which I will incorporate more neatly into this page when it becomes a permanent fixture at the top of my blog), include:

Architects of the Culture of Death, by Donald DeMarco and Benjamin Wiker (guest post by my husband)

The Kristin Lavransdatter Trilogy, by Sigrid Undset (best Catholic novels, ever! Get the Tiina Nunnally translation)

What We Can't Not Know, by J. Budziszewski (which I recommend as the one book you should read this year)

If Protestantism is True, by Devin Rose (clarity, logic, big-picture apologetics)

The Church and New Media, edited by Brandon Vogt (a must for Catholic bloggers, with 100% of proceeds going to the developing world)




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Just Curious: What are you reading now, and what book changed your life?

So as I attempt to excavate myself from the mess surrounding my desk, I thought I would throw out a "Just Curious" post, because it's quick and I can get back to work (if I stay motivated!). It's actually two questions, and I am so interested to read your answers!

1) What book are you reading now?

2) Is there a book (besides the Bible) that changed your life?

My answers:

1) I am reading Unplanned, by Abby Johnson. (Isn't everyone?) It's definitely a page-turner, and I am surprised at how generous she is to those on the "pro-choice" side. It has given me pause, and I am grateful for the reminder that no matter how evil abortion is, we cannot know the hearts of those who support it. And boy, that first chapter is hard to read. So much sadness, and for what? Sigh. When will we realize that life is always good, love is the highest law, and that killing is not loving?

2) The book that changed my life... well, I already wrote about one here, but there is another one that came earlier. It was the book my mother handed me sixteen years ago, a week or two after I told her I was thinking of leaving the Church. It was Catholicism and Fundamentalism, by Karl Keating. I opened the book ready to be a Protestant, and I closed it knowing I could never be anything but a Catholic. The historical, biblical and logical truths were so clear -- I knew my life would never, ever be the same. And it hasn't been. 

Okay, how about you?