Catholic Fire

Today is Day 1 of the Virtual Book Tour for Ornamental Graces by Carolyn Astfalk. Brief Summary After his duplicitous girlfriend left, Dan Malone spent six months in a tailspin of despair and destruction: emotional, physical, and spiritual. Just when his life seems to be back on track, he meets Emily Kowalski, younger sister of his new best friend. Emily’s the kind of girl he’d always dreamed of—sweet, smart, and sincere. But he’s made a mess of his life and ruined his chances for earning the love and trust of a woman like her. Could Dan be the man Emily’s been waiting for? How could he be when every time they get close he pulls away? And will he ever be free from his shady past and the ex-girlfriend who refuses to stay there? My Review Carolyn Astfalk is a gifted writer who had me hooked from page one in Ornamental Graces . This is not just a good love story, but it is a great one! It is hard for me to believe that this is only Carolyn’s second novel! While her firs...

Via Pinterest. A female reader from Africa writes: I am on the verge of giving up. I feel very different from every other person in the world and I am wondering what reward I would get for my being chaste from birth. I have never accepted intimate relationships with anyone, part of me wonders if that is what the church preaches, part of me is unhappy, part of me finds my way of life satisfying. The other part wonders if I have a life at all. I don't exactly need a relationship, but I wonder what to do with my life when I need one. I wonder if I would join a convent when I don't get one, and I wonder if that's the life I want for myself. I need advice on how to live despite the way the world projects virginity with such negativity. I need an assurance that I am not insanely weird, and I need to know that God would be there to direct my life for the best. Hang in there! Don’t give up! God is with you and will give you the grace you need to keep you strong in the bat...

In The Four Keys to Everlasting Love: How Your Catholic Marriage Can Bring You Joy for a Lifetime , Manuel (Manny) and Karee Santos share the secrets of securing a lifetime of authentic love and mutual joy in marriage. Karee Santos, a marriage columnist, and Dr. Manuel Santos, a psychiatrist who has been counseling couples for more than fifteen years, have teamed up to compose a comprehensive manual which enables couples to find a deep, lasting, and satisfying love through a sacramental marriage. The Four Keys to Everlasting Love was written for both engaged couples preparing for marriage as well as couples in all seasons of marriage. Using real-life stories, biblical principles, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and the teachings of St. John Paul II, the Santoses witness to the significance of a sacramental marriage. The Santoses effectively accomplish this by telling their own captivating story: how they overcame personality, culture, and religious differences; how they lea...

When I decided to read and review Carolyn Astfalk’s novel Stay with Me , I had heard beforehand that it was really good.  In my opinion, this inspirational Christian romance is better than good. It’s fantastic!  It is filled with everything that makes a story appealing – romance, suspense, action, and humor. It is a fast-moving, extremely addictive book that you won’t want to put down. The characters are so real that I instantly felt connected to them and could easily relate to their life situations and empathize with their dilemmas. Before I go any further, allow me to give you just a taste of what I am talking about. Twenty-four year-old Rebecca, raised in a strict, fundamentalist faith, finally moves out of her father’s home into an apartment of her own, away from her domineering father. She accidentally meets Chris, an attractive and congenial young man who asks her out on a date. As she gets to know Chris, a Catholic convert, she is attracted by his virtues, his str...

By Pat Gohn. Release Date: March 25, 2013, Ave Maria Press, Notre Dame, Indiana, Paperback or Kindle. Available from Ave Maria Press, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Catholic  book stores. Reviewed by Jean M. Heimann, M. A. Theology, wife, mother, freelance writer, and oblate with the Community of St. John. In 1989, a friend from my parish choir introduced me to a document that would change my life – Mulieris Dignitatem —Blessed John Paul II’s famous encyclical On the Dignity and Vocation of Women . It was this document that dispelled all my misconceptions about how the Church actually viewed the modern woman and it was John Paul II’s words which enhanced my self-esteem, altered my attitude toward the Church, and positively impacted my mission in life. Today, it is Pat Gohn’s wonderful book Blessed, Beautiful, and Bodacious: Celebrating the Gift of Catholic Womanhood that has bathed me in grace and renewed my spirit once again. In it, Pat shares her personal life exper...

I have read nearly all of Christopher West’s books, and, in my opinion, Fill These Hearts: God, Sex, and the Universal Longing is his best book to date. In Fill These Hearts , West has done a masterful job in weaving together lessons from classical and contemporary art, literature, music, movies, and the Christian mystical tradition to explain the deep yearnings within our bodies and spirits as revealing the cry of our hearts for God. West believes that most people view the Christian life as a life of stoic repression and he methodically sets out to demolish the idea that God wants us to block the deepest desires of our hearts. According to West, God does not want us to repress our desires nor does He want us to seek immediate gratification by indulging our desires. Instead, God wants us to sublimate the world’s pleasures and to ready our hearts for the banquet He has prepared for each of us. In Fill These Hearts , West seeks to help us aim our desire according to God’s design a...

Angela’s Song Author: AnnMarie Creedon Full Quiver Publishing Paperback: 270 pages Angela’s Song by AnnMarie Creedon is a beautiful and captivating love story set in modern day times in a small town in Missouri.  It is the story of Angela (Jel) Cooke, a pretty Italian-American widow and mother of three, who is lonely, despite her active schedule. In fact, she keeps herself overly involved in her church ministries to avoid dealing with the fact that her marriage was damaged and her husband, Devin, died before it could be repaired. When she meets Jack, the professor of a theology class she is taking, her pain is transparent to him and he challenges her to deal with it. Although Jel is attracted to Jack, she is hardly ready to become involved in a new relationship.  What follows is the touching, often amusing tale of how Angela heals and becomes whole again – able to love herself and others. Once I began reading this novel, I found it hard to put down. Creedon capture...

Written by Richard Wetzel, M.D. Published by Sex Education for Advanced Beginners, Inc. Publication Date: 2009 222 pages “The world needed a sexual revolution, but got the wrong one. We needed the one based on truth and love, the one Pope John Paul II presented in The Theology of the Body. Instead, we got one based on lies, pleasure, and freedom, which has turned into a hideous monster of a revolution marred by rampant diseases, death, divorce, abortions, sexual enslavement, etc., which is sweeping away hopelessly ignorant young people in droves and robbing them of the awesome potential of an authentic relationship with Jesus Christ.” These are the words of Richard Wetzel, M.D. in his new book, Sexual Wisdom for Catholic Adolescents , which was written specifically to address the catastrophic crisis in Catholic sexuality education today. In Sexual Wisdom for Catholic Adolescents , Dr. Wetzel, a devout Catholic physician, who has been a chastity educator for the last 20 years, provides...

Christopher West, senior fellow of the Theology of the Body Institute, was interviewed last week for an in-depth feature segment on ABC’s Nightline. The interview was filmed on location in North Carolina during one of his conferences and also in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, near the headquarters of the Theology of the Body Institute. The piece will air either tonight (May 7) or tomorrow night (May 8). ABC Nightline airs at 11:35 EST. Check your local listing for more information. Nightline has an average nightly viewing audience of four million. Please pray for those who will be exposed to the message through this medium. Over eight hours of taped interviews were edited down to seven minutes. We ask for your prayers through the intercession of John Paul II that the message of The Theology of the Body will be presented authentically. Read the ABC Online article by clicking here.

Christopher West: An Introduction to the Theology of the Body

Colleen Carroll Campbell interviews Teresa Tomeo, author Dale O'Leary, author Genevieve Kineke, author Donna-Marie Cooper O'Boyle, and former law professor of Notre Dame, Elizabeth Kirk all whom were delegates at the Rome Congress dedicated to the 20th anniversary of John Paul the Second's Letter to Women "Mulieris Dignitatem." (1/3) Faith and Culture: 8/3/2008 Mulieris Dignitatem - Part 1 This video is split up into 3 parts. You can find the links to the other parts here.

Reading Christopher West’s new book, Heaven’s Song, is a life-changing experience that will leave a lasting imprint on your heart as well as your soul. Heaven’s Song possesses the power to purify and to heal the hurts inflicted on each one of us by the culture of death, thus, drawing our hearts into a deeper, more intimate union with the Lord. It possesses the potential to heal the individual, the married couple, the Church, and society as a whole. In Heaven’s Song, West explores the newly discovered hidden talks of Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, which he shared in his Wednesday audiences. These ten prepared talks (which were never delivered due to the delicacy of their nature) represent some of Pope John Paul’s most beautiful work. The themes of the ten tracts include: deeply moving reflections on the intimacy of lovers in the Song of Songs, penetrating insights into the marriage of Tobias and Sarah in the Book of Tobit, and the new illuminations on the “spousal nature” of ...

The good Cardinal talks about self-control, our necessary cooperation with God and respect for natural law as a logical step for all people of good will as he reflects some more on Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body.