catholic family faith

What Really Matters at Christmas

I want this, and this, and that...oh, and some of these...and add this, too.

Many people are making lists of what they want for Christmas.  They check them twice, and hope that Santa will bring them everything they wrote on their lists.

In a store yesterday, I overheard a couple of women talking about how far behind they feel.  They still have lots of presents to buy before Christmas next week.

At this time of year, our culture focuses on the presents.  We gotta get stuff.  And the more stuff we get, the bigger the stuff is, the better.

We certainly seem to be living up to the expectations of our capitalist culture.  But are we missing out on the best part of Christmas, the real purpose of Christmas.

I recently read a wonderful book, The Christmas Sweater, by Glenn Beck.  It is a beautifully written and illustrated story about a boy who wants a bike for Christmas.  On Christmas Eve, as he is getting ready for bed, his grandfather comes to his room and tells him that he had been snooping around, he didn't see a bike, but he did see a wonderful Christmas sweater.  The boy dreams about the adventures he had with his sweater:  sledding with his father and making cookies with his mother.  On Christmas morning, he runs downstairs and sees the bike he had hoped for, but instead of running to the bike, he looks for the sweater.  The Christmas sweater and his dreams reminded him that love and family are better than any other gift, even a bike.

Sometimes we need to do less to help our children understand what life is really all about.

The Catholic Vision for Leading Like Jesus by Owen Phelps, Ph.D.

I just finished reading The Catholic Vision for Leading Like Jesus by Owen Phelps, Ph.D (Our Sunday Visitor Publishing.)  In his book, Dr. Phelps introduces what he calls S3 Leadership: Servant, Steward, Shepherd.  He bases his insights on Lead Like Jesus by Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges.

I found the concepts of S3 Leadership very intriguing.  It almost seems too logical. If we want to lead like Jesus, we just need to follow his example.  And his example focuses on being servant, steward, and shepherd.

Jesus had a specific vision for his ministry, to do his Father's will.  Based on that vision, Jesus exemplified what it means to be a servant leader, to identify what others need and help them to fulfill their need.  He was a steward leader in that he realized that all his resources, his disciples, his talents were gifts that he was given to use to share the Good News.  And he was a shepherd who put other's needs before his own, ultimately giving his life for those he shepherded.

In the chapters of his book, Dr. Phelps presents and discusses the qualities of an S3 Leader, including integrity, humility, honesty, having and effectively communicating a vision, ability to challenge others to develop their talents in order to succeed. 

I think this book is especially good for parents.  After all, parents are leaders and they exemplify Jesus to their children.  Parents truly are S3 Leaders.  They serve their children, making sure that their physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual needs are met.  They recognize the gift of their children and help their children to cultivate their personal gifts.  They shepherd their children, often putting aside their own desires for the needs of their children.

The Catholic Vision for Leading Like Jesus is a fairly quick read.  It contains eleven chapters of succinct ideas and information.  It also includes asides drawn from leaders and leadership styles in the church and the business world.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who leads...and that includes just about everyone!

Ireland by Frank Delaney

It's timely that I finished reading Frank Delaney's book, Ireland, the night before St. Patrick's Day.  I could read it again!

Ireland is a novel about a young boy who spends his life searching for a storyteller that comes to his home one evening.  Woven into the plot of the boy's search and his coming-of-age are beautiful stories of Ireland's lore.  Delaney's writing sings with the myths and legends that make up Ireland's history.  I actually learned a lot about Ireland through the stories he included in the book.

In the author's note at the beginning of the book, Delaney writes that the country's oral tradition "took great care to say that imagination and emotion insist on playing their parts in every history, and therefore, to understand the Irish, mere facts can never be enough..."  I believe that this is the truth of every nation, every tribe, every person; "we merge our myths with our facts according to our feelings, we tell ourselves our own story.  And no matter what we are told, we choose what we believe.  All 'truths' are only our truths, because we bring to the 'facts' our feelings, our experiences, our wishes.  Thus, storytelling--from wherever it comes--forms a layer in the foundation of the world..." (Frank Delaney)

This idea of the foundational layer of storytelling is certainly true in the Catholic faith.  The Bible is a collection of stories first told and heard aloud around fires of food and warmth.  The Church's Tradition is a passing on of the experiences of events through the centuries and an understanding of those experiences.  One's own individual faith is tapestry of stories and experiences shared with family, community, and within one's own heart and soul.

Storytelling, whether it's Irish history, Church history, or personal history, is a foundational component of human life.

Whether or not you are Irish, I encourage you to read Ireland by Frank Delaney (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2005) if only for the wonderful stories that it contains.

Books for Lent

Are you looking for a good read or devotional for Lent?  FaithAliveBooks.com offers Catholic Book Journal blog, eCatechist blog, Best-Selling Catholic Books, and a link to Amazon.com to purchase items.  http://faithalivebooks.com/

Love Letters

This morning in my Living Faith devotional (a quarterly devotional from Creative Communications for the Parish) I read Claire J. King's reflection on Psalm 37:4:  Take delight in the Lord, and he will grant you your heart's request.

King shared a wonderful idea she heard from a man.  "...He decided to trust that God had someone in mind for him to be his life's partner.  He just didn't know who that person was.  So, on those days when he felt most lonely, he wrote love letters to his future spouse.  On New Year's Even when he had no one to kiss, on Valentine's Day when he had no one to send him a card, he wrote love letters to 'his heart's desire,' and trusted that God would open his heart and his eyes to the right person.  On his wedding day, his gift to his bride was a box of love letters written to her when he didn't even know who she was."

I think this is a beautiful gesture.  We don't often trust God to give us our heart's desires, so we go out and take it upon ourselves to find what we think we want, including a spouse.  Yet God will provide our heart's true desire.  If we trust in God and wait for what God knows is best for us, we will be much more fulfilled than doing it ourselves.

In 2003, Joshua Harris published his book I Kissed Dating Goodbye.  Harris' book challenges the cultural expectations about dating and relationships and gives a biblical perspective on true love.  Harris says about his book, "The book points out the problems with today's recreational romance, but what I've heard most from readers is that ultimately dating isn't the point - the book is about who God is and what it means to trust him with our love lives."

My daughters and I often discuss the merits and drawbacks of dating.  I love these thoughts and challenges by King and Harris.  They provide a perspective about what dating is truly about:  Not just finding someone to spend time with, but finding out what God wants for you and then trusting God to grant your heart's desire.

You can subscribe to Living Faith through Creative Communications for the Parish, www.livingfaith.com.

I Kissed Dating Goodbye (ISBN-13: 9781590521359) is available in bookstores and libraries.

The Tenth Gift by Jane Johnson

I just finished reading The Tenth Gift by Jane Johnson (NY: Crown Publishers, 2008).  It is one of those books that I didn't want to end.  Filled with intrigue, religious and cultural conflict, and two women's search for meaning in their lives, I couldn't put it down and just sat for a few moments contemplating it after I closed the last chapter.

Julia Lovat has been having an affair with her best friend's husband for several years.  Then one night in a London restaurant, he gives her a parting gift, a simple book of embroidery, or so it seems.  When Julia opens the book, she notices small writing throughout the pages.  As she reads, she is taken in by the story of Cat, a woman who lived in seventeenth century Cornwall.  Cat wrote of her trials as she was captured by Barbary corsairs and taken to Morocco as a slave.  Captured by the story, Julia goes to Morocco to learn more about Cat's life and experiences.  In Morocco, both women find themselves and love.

Along with telling the parallel stories of Julia and Cat, Johnson deals with the conflicts between Eastern and Western cultures, Islam and Christianity that existed in the seventeenth century, and that still exist today in the twenty-first century. 

With vivid descriptions and winding paths, The Tenth Gift is beautifully written.  As this book was recommended to me by the staff of Kent District Library (as part of their Let It Snow! winter reading program), I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to lose themselves in a story of love and journey of faith.

Good Books by Paul Maier

I just read two good novels by Paul L. Maier:  A Skeleton in God's Closet and More Than a Skeleton.  They are about theological archaeology in Israel.  In A Skeleton in God's Closet, Maier poses the question, "What if archaeology found the bones of Jesus?"  In More Than a Skeleton, he presents the possibility of Jesus coming back for an "intermediate" return. 

I found both books facinating.  The archaeological detail was very good.  I am awed by the support that archaeology provides Bibical studies and Christianity.  The books also helped me to realize how much of an impact Christianity has had on the world:  architecture, literary works, music, art.  If Christianity is false, why is it so rooted in our very existence?

The questions Maier posed were challenging.  I found myself contemplating what I believe and why I believe.  Do I believe that Jesus is the Christ just because I was raised to believe that and it's "the thing to do?"  Or do I believe in Christ Jesus because I have true faith. 

Paul L. Maier is a professor of ancient history at Western Michigan University.