The Queue

I've heard the basics of Dr. Scott Hahn's conversion story from several of his many lectures available on C.D. & other media, but it was illuminating to read his own blow-by-blow account, along with Mrs. Hahn's perspective, since they both "crossed the Tiber" from anti-Catholic Protestantism to Catholicism—from anti-scriptural schism to the one, holy, catholic, & apostolic Church founded by Christ in the foundation of the Apostles. I found the style of Rome Sweet Home more to my liking than that of Kevin Lowry's How God Hauled Me Kicking and Screaming into the Catholic Church, but found in both accounts parallels to my own journey from anonymous pew potato to parish council president, a man of some renown & influence in my parish—a happenstance that surprises no one more than yours truly. Still, the fact remains that my kith & kin whom I wish to draw back to Christ's Church aren't wayward evangelicals or Protestants, but agnostics & atheists ranging from indifferent to hostile. I shall have to read different books for counsel on how best to be God's instrument in their return to the Faith of their childhoods.

I'm not going to begin any new books 'til Advent has given way to the Christmastide. The rest of Advent is going to be so busy I'll barely have time to breathe, let alone read. It will be all I can manage to keep up with Beautiful Hope, if even that.

Recently
Kevin Lowry, How God Hauled Me Kicking and Screaming into the Catholic Church
Deacon Eugene Hausmann, Catholics Go by the Bible: Biblical Sources of Catholic Theology & Liturgy ***abandoned***
Scott & Kimberly Hahn, Rome Sweet Home: Our Journey to Catholicism

Currently
Matthew Kelly & Co., Beautiful Hope: Finding Hope Every Day in a Broken World

Presently
Norman Davies, Vanished Kingdoms: The Rise and Fall of States and Nations ***paused***
Matthew Kelly, Perfectly Yourself: Discovering God's Dream for You
Sherry A. Weddell, Forming Intentional Disciples: The Path to Knowing and Following Jesus
William E. Simon Jr., Great Catholic Parishes: How Four Essential Practices Make Them Thrive
Bishop Robert Barron, Seeds of the Word: Finding God in the Culture
Mike Aquilina, Understanding the Mass: 100 Questions, 100 Answers
Xavier Rynne, Vatican Council II
John W. O'Malley, What Happened at Vatican II
Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est (God Is Love)
Pope Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis (The Sacrament of Charity)
Richard Price, Clockers
Sir Richard Francis Burton, translator, "Sinbad the Sailor" from The Arabian Nights
Sir Ernest Shackleton, South: A Memoir of the Endurance Voyage
William F. Buckley Jr., The Unmaking of a Mayor
Margaret MacMillan, Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World
John le Carré, A Legacy of Spies