Lectio Divina Bible Study:  The Sacraments in Scripture

About the Book:

The Bible testifies to the crucial role that the Sacraments play in God's relationship with humankind. Yet sometimes we take them for granted and miss the true power and significance each Sacrament represents.

Lectio divina, the ancient practice of Scripture immersion, is at the heart of this process. It explores complex topics with sequential steps of study, meditation, and internalization. Specifically, every chapter leads you forward through a sequence of:

Listening - Reading Scripture with expectancy, trusting that God will speak His Word to us through it. 

Understanding - Seeking to comprehend the meaning of the text, encountering God there, and being changed by that encounter. 

Reflecting - Linking the truth of the Scriptures to the experience of faith in the world in which we live. 

Praying - A dialogue with God: we listen to God, then we respond in prayer.

Acting - After prayerfully listening to a passage of Scripture, we should be inspired to make a difference in the way we live.

The Lectio Divina Bible Study series is suitable for parish, small group, or individual use.

My Comments:
This book goes through all seven sacraments.  Through chapters such as "Baptism in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit", "God Will Provide the Lamb for Sacrifice", "Entrusted with the Ministry of Reconciliation" and "The Two Become One Flesh", this book not only describes the practice of Lectio Divina, but gives the reader plenty of opportunity to practice it.  Each chapter beings with a few lines to focus  you as you read  scripture passages related to the topic.  Following the scripture passage is some information of the type usually found in Bible study guides.  Reflection questions followed by a prayer and a request for action close out the chapters.

If found the scripture commentary to be very interesting and the reflection questions gave me fodder for prayer.  I enjoyed the book and recommend it for people who want to know more about the scriptural underpinnings of the sacraments as well as for those looking for a guide to prayer.  Grade:  B.

This review was written as part of the Catholic book reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Lectio Divina Bible Study: Sacraments. They are also a great source for a Catechism of the Catholic Church or a Catholic Bible.

Monday Memes

This month, Mailbox Monday is hosted by At Home With Books.  Bloggers list  books that arrived in either snail mail or email.  Snail mail brought me an unsolicited book and a cookbook:

Making Sense When Life Doesn't

Creative Slow-Cooker Meals: Use Two Slow Cookers for Tasty and Easy Dinners

I downloaded a  NetGalley:

Journeys of Faith: Evangelicalism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and Anglicanism

 .

 It's Monday What Are You Reading is hosted by Sheila over at Book Journey.  She asks what we read last week, what we reviewed last week and what we plan to read this week.  Since my last Monday post, I've read:

My Story, My Song (To be reviewed later)

The Priest and the Peaches (To be reviewed in February)

Girls Uncovered: New Research on What America's Sexual Culture Does to Young Women

My Review

I also published one review of a book read earlier:

The Summer Garden (Chesapeake Shores)

My Review

Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival

I'd like to welcome everyone to Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival.  We are a group of Catholic bloggers who gather weekly to share our best posts with each other.  To particpate, go to your blog and create an entry titled Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival.  In it, highlight one or more of your posts from the past week that you believe would be of interest to Catholic bloggers---whether they are posts reflecting on spiritual matters or posts about antics of Catholic kids, or anything in between.  Come back here and enter the URL of that post below.  Finally, go visit other participants, and leave comments!  If you want a weekly reminder to post, join our yahoogroup.

I'm glad to have everyone here, and just want to remind you that posts linked below should contain a link back here.

I reviewed a couple of books this week that I think you'll find interesting.  The first is Girls Uncovered, a book that uses research and logic, rather than religion or morality, to argue against non-marital sex.  The second is Angelina's Bachelors, a story about a young widow who starts cooking for neighborhood bachelors to earn money after her husband dies. 


How about you?  

My Review: Summer Garden

The Summer Garden (Chesapeake Shores)

About the Book:

Falling for "Maddening Moira" O'Malley was the unexpected highlight of Luke O'Brien's Dublin holiday. So when she pays a surprise visit to Chesapeake Shores, Luke is thrilled…at first. A fling with this wild Irish rose is one thing, but forever? Maybe someday, but not when he's totally focused on establishing a business that will prove his mettle to his overachieving family.

Given Luke's reaction, Moira has some soul-searching of her own to do. Scarred by her father's abandonment, she wonders if Luke, with his playboy past, is truly the family man she longs for. Adding to her dilemma, she's offered an amazing chance at a dream career of her own.

Deep down, though, Moira knows home is the real prize, and that love can be every bit as enchanted as a summer garden.

My Comments:
This volume of  the Chesapeake Shores saga by Sherryl Woods picks up neatly where An O'Brien Family Christmas ended.  Luke and Moira are a young couple, both with trust issues, both trying to find their way in the world, who finally realize they are stronger together than apart.  They both are trying to prove themselves professionally, though Luke has a better idea of his path than Moira does of hers.

Their story is nicely balanced by the story of their grandparents--people in the twilight of their lives who loved each other in their youth, were separated, married others and raised families, and now are able to be together.  Fans of the series will enjoy catching up on all the members of the O'Brien family.

The book is clearly series romance with a large cast of characters who seem to do little in this book.  Luke and Moira and their grandparents are likable couples that you just "know" belong together and of course, as it is a romance novel, they get their happily ever after (after a few bumps in the road). There is plenty of bedroom activity, but we are left outside the door.

I'd like to thank the publisher for making a review copy available via NetGalley.  Grade:  B.

Book Review: Girls Uncovered

Girls Uncovered: New Research on What America's Sexual Culture Does to Young Women

About the Book:

Any parent can identify with the feeling that girls growing up in America face a treacherous future; Uncovered Girls unveils the facts. In a follow up to their eye-opening release, Hooked, obstetricians Joe McIlhaney and Freda Bush present stunning scientific research on the development of young girls in America's increasingly reckless sexual culture. They survey the reality of prevalent sexual behaviors and attitudes as well as their psychological, social, physical, and spiritual effects. Despite the harrowing facts revealed by their studies, McIlhaney and Bush give us hope through their expertise as physicians and parents of daughters. Girls Uncovered provides fundamental wisdom and practical advice to help parents, counselors, and church leaders guide young girls safely through the challenges they will face so they can achieve their potential and enjoy full health, hope and happiness.

My Comments:

I'm a middle-aged conservative mom.  "Cool" isn't a word generally used to describe me.  I don't dress or act like a teenager (but according to my teen daughter, that's a good thing).  Part of being not cool is that I think that regardless of your moral or religious beliefs, non-marital sex is just plain dumb.  The authors of Girls Uncovered: New Research on What America's Sexual Culture Does to Young Women agree.  They make a convincing argument backed up by research (which is cited) that non-marital, particular early non-marital sexual activity, works against the goals girls set for themselves.  While girls say they want an education, a career, a stable marriage and children, non-marital sex can lead to pregnancy which derails educational and career plans, and makes a good marriage partner harder to find.  It can lead to disease which causes infertility.  It can cause you to develop relationship patterns that make it more difficult to develop the intimacy skills necessary for a good marriage.  Why then, with all these negatives, are our girls engaging in so much non-marital sex?

The authors go through the hormonal aspects of desire for sex as well as the physiological/psychological effects sex have on us.  In short, our bodies are programmed to want sex, and then, once we have it, it is natural for girls to feel closer to the guy.  Unfortunately the same is not necessarily true for men.

I liked the way this book took readers through the various lies that are told today, like "safe sex" and refuted them not with "The Bible (or Pope) says it's wrong" but rather "This study says that people who abstain from non-marital sex are more likely to achieve the goal you want".  The authors come right out and say "Sex before marriage is sexist"--the bad consequences are far more likely to happen to women--pregnancy, infertility, her caring more about him than he does about her"  They also point out that cohabitation is a bad idea.  Cohabitation before marriage is associated with a higher rate of marital break-up and cohabiting women have a higher rate of unplanned pregnancy than married women do.

While the book as a whole is addressed to parents, there is one chapter addressed to teen girls and my daughter will find herself gifted with it.

My only complaint about the book is that at times it seemed repetitive.  Still, it was an easy read full of good information.  Grade:  B+ . The authors are involved with this organization.

I'd like to thank the publisher for making a review copy available via NetGalley.

Monday Memes

This month, Mailbox Monday is hosted by At Home With Books.  Bloggers list  books that arrived in either snail mail or email.  Snail mail brought me

Beyond Molasses Creek

I downloaded a few NetGalleys:

If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History of the Home

 .

 It's Monday What Are You Reading is hosted by Sheila over at Book Journey.  She asks what we read last week, what we reviewed last week and what we plan to read this week.  Since my last Monday post, I've read and reviewed:

My Review

My Review

My Review

My Comments

I also wrote about Kindle freebies.  Let me know if you are a fan of them.