A Big Heart Open to God (HarperOne)

It's been several months since a controversial 12,000 word interview with Pope Francis was published by America Magazine. The media had a field day with it. As opposed to reading the whole interview, journalists extracted bits and pieces and interpreted them to suit their own agenda. Harper Collins has recently published the interview in book format, under the title of A Big Heart Open to God to read at your leisure.

A Big Heart Open to God  is an interview with Pope Francis by Father Antonio Spadaro. This interview was conducted in person over the span of three meetings during August 2013. Like all good interviewers, Fr. Spadaro had a list of questions to ask his interviewee. However, he instead chose to go off-list and asked, "Who is Jorge Mario Bergoglio?" opening up a level of humility in Pope Francis that we don't often see in global leaders. It takes the Pope some time to answer, but he replies, "I am a sinner," and "I am one who is looked upon by the Lord." We don't often think of the Pope as a sinner, but he is human too. And if the pope can acknowledge his sinfulness, we should be more keenly aware of our sinfulness.

Other topics addressed in this interview include the Jesuits, the role of the Church, Vatican II, and women's place in the Church. When this interview hit the papers, many media hubs extracted isolated comments about the woman's role, and  there was much speculation that Pope Francis favored the ordination of women, but let me assure, he did not say that at all! He did say that women are vitally important to the Church, and we must do a better job defining their role and allowing them to work within their roles. After the interview, this book includes reactions and responses to the Pope's words from people like Cardinal Dolan, Richard Rohr, and Karen Sue Smith. Unfortunately, most of these were not interesting to me, as they seemed lackluster in comparison to the interview that preceded them.

What I did appreciate was the spiritual reflections presented by Fr. Martin at the very end of the book. The reflection questions were both practical and fruitful, and it helped take the interview to a deeper level for me. Overall, I'd give this book 4 out of 5 stars. If you missed out on this interview when it was first published, or if the idea of staring at a computer screen that long to read it was unappealing to you, then I'd recommend this book for you.

This book was provided to me for free by Harper Collins in exchange for an honest review. If you found this review helpful, please click the link and hit Yes!

Meet the "Single Catholic Girl"

Welcome back to Stuart’s Study. I said in my about me before that I would like to eventually write a book about personal finance with a Catholic perspective. While, I have yet to post on my blog about the subject, Molly, another Catholic blogger, was gracious enough to let me write a guest post (click here) on her blog SingleCatholicGirl.com. Each Tuesday, Molly posts on different topics with 5 key points, and I got to write today's on budgeting. To tie in with her post and lead people over to her site, I decided it would be fun to interview her by asking only 5 questions.

1. If you had to summarize yourself in 5 words what would it be?

Goes where the wind blows. (see John 3:8)

2. What’s your ultimate dream/ambition for your life?

Heaven.

3. If you could meet one Catholic saint from any period of time, who would it be and why?

St. Peter, I feel connected to him; denying Christ, little faith, trying to reach Him by walking on water-but falling, I get that. For someone who walked so closely to Jesus and yet had doubt, I think is really prevalent in our culture right now. I know it is for me. Plus I would love to get some good fishing tips from the guy.

4. What’s one big (or little) thing you are doing in this Year of Faith to deepen your faith?

Pilgrimages-Shrine in Wisconsin, other various places in the States, Rome, maybe the Holy Land? I also would like to pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy more this year. Such a beautiful prayer and so needed for our world.

5. As a Single Catholic Girl, what is one piece of advice you would give to other Single Catholic Girls (or Guys)?

Rest in His most Sacred Heart. This is where you will find peace, solace, comfort and hope. It's all about drawing closer to Him.

Well, that’s all the questions I have for Molly. Check out my guest post on her blog today, and be sure to add her blog (SingleCatholicGirl.com) to your reading list so that you can check it out daily. She's got some great advice for everyone, be they single or married, male or female. She also has a cool contest/giveaway the first Thursday of every month! Have a blessed day.