Encountering Truth (Image Books)

I am the first Catholic to tell you that I am suffering "Francis fatigue." I'm not sure if it is an official term or one I made up, but it deals with fatigue at the attention he garners, not the man himself. He's in the news everyday. Every Catholic publisher has 5 new books about/by Pope Francis, St. Francis, or both. It's actually been a bit of challenge to find books to review that don't focus on Francis. So when Image Books asked me to review their latest book, Encountering Truth: Meeting God in the Everyday, I thought long and hard about it. That's saying a lot seeing that I love free books. I ultimately decided to give it a try, and here is my review of it.

Encountering Truth is a collection of Pope Francis' daily homilies given from St. Martha's Chapel. Fr. Antonio Spadaro wrote the introduction for this 400 page tome. In it he explains the nature of the homilies, Pope Francis' method of delivery, as well as the people who normally attend these homilies, This sets the stage for the homilies and puts them in the correct light before reading them. There are 186 homilies in total with each of them approximately two pages long. They are presented chronologically from March 2013 to March 2014. At the end of every homily are the Scripture passages from that particular. I'd recommend reading the Scripture passages first for context, and then reading the homily. The homilies are vast and varying, and include topics such as hypocrisy, prayer for the Middle East, the idolatry of money.

While I recommend reading every homily, you can just look at the Table of Contents and pick a topic that you think you need to read. One of the ones that spoke to me recently was "Never judge, never bad-mouth." In this homily, Pope Francis tells us, "Do not judge anyone because only the Lord can judge." Next, he tells us to "zip it," and if we have something to say, then say it to the person directly or someone who can help the situation, and not to everybody. Gossip is a big struggle of mine, and you can hear and read so eloquently on why it is harmful or bad for you and the people you are gossiping about. However, hearing it put so bluntly is what some people (myself included) need from time to time.

Encountering Truth: Meeting God in the Everyday is one of the latest books from Image Books and sadly is among the list of last books Image will be publishing. (Read more here.) I'm not sure if we can change Image's mind, but if more Catholics read more and bought more books, we might could. So if you are looking for a solid read, straight from the mouth of Pope Francis, this is the book for you! So pick up a copy, and try and read at least one a day.

This book was provided to me for free by Image Books in exchange for an honest review. If you found this review helpful, please click here and hit Yes!