YOU. (Ascension Press)

Talking to teenagers is a skill that many adults lack. Despite how well-meaning adults are, they forgot somewhere along the way what it was like to be a teenager. So instead of being authentic and "real" with them, adults put on a facade that they think will make their message more appealing to their teenage audience. Unfortunately, teenagers can see through something fake in a millisecond. Then, you have lost their trust and attention, possibly forever. Two adults who I would say are the best at authentically connecting to teenagers are Jason and Crystalina Evert. I believe they are because they not only believe what they say, but they care about their audience. Today, I would like to tell you about one of their latest projects called YOU. YOU. is a DVD program from Ascension Press that presents Theology of the Body to teens. In addition to learning what authentic love is; how to navigate through difficult topics like gender, pornography, and same sex unions; and will also learn what healthy relationships look like. The program is divided as follows:

1. Created for Love

2. Naked Without Shame

3. Love Defined

4. Hope and Redemption in Christ

5. Truth and Freedom

6. Free, Total, Faithful, Fruitful

7. Language of the Body

8. Marriage

9. Priesthood, Consecrated Life, and Celibacy

10. Friendship. Dating, and Family

Lessons are divided into several steps - 1. Welcome, Icebreaker, and Opening Prayer, 2. Dive In, 3. Bridging the Gap, 4. Video Presentation, Journaling, and Small-Group Discussion, 5. To the Core, 6. Digging Deeper, 7. Take it to Prayer, 8. Session Review, 9. Live it Out, 10. Work it Out, and 11. Closing Prayer. This makes each session approximately 90 to 120 minutes long, so it is a time commitment, but it is one that is worth making. The eleven steps in each lesson are a nice blend of prayer, reading, discussions, and videos, so your teen will not get bored from doing the same activity for two hours solid.

The best part of this program is the authenticity and candidness of the material presented. As I stated earlier, it is difficult talking to teenagers. When you have to talk to them about matters of love, relationships, and sex, it gets exponentially more difficult. You either deal with awkward silence, giggling, snide comments, inappropriate jokes, or some combination of all of these. This series, however, doesn't beat around the bushes with serious topics. It presents these tough topics in an honest manner and uses examples that are real to life, not far-fetched and hard to believe. It also treats teenagers as intelligent people, which they are, and that is why they are more open to the words of this series, because they are not talked down to. Their questions are answered in a way that relates to them and makes sense, not just with a simple brush-off or "Don't do this, because the Bible says so. End of story!"

The starter pack retails for $129 and comes with a 5 DVD set, 1 Leader's Guide, 1 Parent's Guide, and 1 Student Workbook. This is a steal of a price, but of course you will want to supplement it with more student workbooks and parent's guides. After watching through this program, I am convinced that every parish needs this program for their CYO/teenage groups. With the current trajectory of the culture going more secular and over-sexualized, our teenagers need the truth now more than ever. Wouldn't you rather they learned about these important matters from the Church than society? I know I would!

This program was provided to me for free by Ascension Press in exchange for an honest review. Be sure to check out their other programs both for adults, teens, and children's as they are truly the best in the business!

TOB for Kids and Catholic Manga (Pauline Books and Media)

I have to admit that I have a lot of books in my queue to read currently. I once reached a point where my review stack was dwindling, and I was worried I wasn't going to be able to continue this blog so I reached out to secular publishers for kids books. That opened up my blog to a whole new demographic, which I hope brings in regular non-Catholic readers, who might see the beauty in the Catholic books I review and it can be a tool for evangelization. Because of this influx of secular kids books, I have neglected a company that holds a dear place in my heart, Pauline Books and Media. Pauline Books and Media gave me a chance as a fledgling blogger and sent me several kids books to review. They are still my go-to store for great Catholic kids books, so today I would like to tell you about several of their new books.

You may recall that earlier this year I reviewed three board books from the TOB for Tots series. (For people not hip to the acronym, the TOB stands for Theology of the Body.) This Fall the author, Monica Ashour, is back with three more books in a series called TOB for Kids! The books are entitled Every Body Has Something to Say, Everybody Has Something to Give, and God Has a Plan for Boys and Girls. If your children previously read the TOB for Tots series, then they will recognize that their new series is paperback, because no "big kid" wants to read a board book for babies. At the beginning of each book is a note to the parents that tells you what the book will be teaching your children and can help foster discussion between you and your children. Every Body Has Something to Say tells us that our bodies communicate with us; how to listen to what our body is telling us, and most importantly how to appropriately respond to what our body is telling us. Everybody Has Something to Give talks about giving and receiving the gift of one's self, in the form of kind deeds, God Has a Plan for Boys and Girls addresses gender, how boys and girls are alike, and how they are different. It is easily my favorite book, as it explains that even though men and women are different, they each have unique gifts and callings in life that only they can answer as a man or woman. This was a 5 star series of books, which I am proud for my son to have in his library. He isn't quite old enough for them yet, but I know he will love them as much as he loves the TOB for Tots series, which we have read at least 100 times! Hopefully Ms. Ashour will continue this progression and do one for teens next.

I used to be a big fan of manga (Japanese comic books). They were so unlike traditional American comic books in the stories seemed to be a bit deeper and wasn't just the same old superhero beats supervillain each and every issue. Now, there were negative elements in these comics as well, including some sexual humor that is apparently more acceptable/prevalent in Japanese culture. Therefore, when I found out that Pauline Books and Media was releasing two children's books in manga-style, I was cautiously optimistic. The two titles are based on two well-known Catholic saints - St. Philip Neri and St. Teresa of Avila.

Philip Neri: The Laughing Saint is a children's book in the Shounen-style. This means that it is aimed at boys, high-action, and lots of humor. Some of the most popular mangas in Japan are Shounen and include series such as Dragon Ball, Naruto, and InuYasha. Unlike traditional Japanese manga, this title reads from left to right. My guess is that this was done to avoid confusion among those unfamiliar with this comic style. The artwork is spot on in the characters having over-exaggerated eyes and the sound effects where necessary.

The book begins with a classmate asking Philip for help with their Latin work. Philip is too distracted to help, because he is focusing on his hunger and all the bananas being gone. There are plenty of comical pieces like this littered throughout the book. However, behind the immaturity, the love for people is seen on almost every page, in Philip's words and deeds. All he wants to do is help take care of the poor and those less fortunate than him. He is able to do this both physically (curing illnesses) and spiritually (in the sacrament of Confession where he helped a young man who had a problem with stealing). This great saint never gave up on people, and that caused the people to never enter ultimate despair by turning away entirely from God. The book closes with information on his canonization and a list of his sayings and maxims. This was an exciting read and one that will greatly appeal to boys ages 10 and up. I even know some 30+ men who will enjoy this book as well.

Saint Teresa of Avila: God's Troublemaker is a children's book in the Shoujo-style. This means that is is aimed at girls and focuses more on emotions and relationships. Some popular Japanese series from this genre include Boys Over Flowers, Fruits Basket, and Sailor Moon. As a male, I have no familiarity with the titles, I just obtained them from research, so someone more familiar with them can tell me if the artwork is similar. Like the book Philip Neri: The Laughing Saint, this one is read left to right and not right to left in traditional Japanese manga. The art seems very flowery and places a great focus on light.

The story is divided into five chapters and begins with Teresa at an early age dealing with the reality of her mother dying. Her father and sister believe she is acting out, looking to be the center of attention, so they come to the conclusion that they should send her to study at a convent. Through the rest of the chapters, we see Teresa's struggle to mature and focus on others and not herself. We also see glimpses of the visions she received while in the convent, and the impact that she had on everyone around her. The book closes with information on her canonization and personal words found in her notebook. This manga is unique, which is good and bad. It will definitely appeal to fans of St. Teresa, but I wonder how successful this style will be among girls, because there are very few girls I know that read manga. Hopefully, I'm wrong and it's wildly successful!

These book were provided to me for free by Pauline Books and Media in exchange for honest reviews.

TOB for Tots (Pauline Books and Media)

Theology of the Body (TOB for short) can be a deep and sometimes confusing subject for even the most educated Catholic. Pope John Paul II talked and wrote on the subject extensively, even before his pontificate. In the simplest of terms it discusses the human body and sexual love. That is the barest of barest details about it, and I have tried to read on it many times and have always walked away scratching my head and with more questions than answers. That's not to say it's not worth studying. It just means I don't have the intelligence to tackle it yet, but hopefully one day. With all of that said, imagine my surprise when I open up a box and discover three board books dubbed TOB for Tots. "How are toddlers supposed to grasp these concepts, when even I can't?" I said to myself, but I decided to give them a shot.

The book titles in the series are Everybody has a Body, Every Body is Smart, and Every Body is a Gift. Looking at the product codes, I believe this is the "proper" reading order. That's not to say you can't read them in any order as the message of each book can stand on its own. Each board book is twelve pages and contains pictures of children of all different races (always appreciated) in the toddler range, as well as their parents, and grandparents. The word body is in bold lettering everywhere it appears to reinforce the focus of the books. Everybody has a Body's main message is that God made our bodies, and how boys and girls are alike, but also stresses that boys and girls have different bodies as well. It does this without explicitly spelling out the differences. Everybody is Smart talks about listening to their bodies when they are hungry or tired and making good choices, like knowing to be quiet in church or eat something healthy and not just cookies. Everybody is a Gift teaches the children about love and how we can show love to others. At the end of each book is a section for adults to help you put the book and teachings in perspective for you and your children.

Overall, I was very impressed by this series. We are just now starting to slowly understand the beauty which is Theology of the Body, and I believe we should be trying to teach it children as early as possible. These books help accomplish that. I hope that there will be more in this series, and also a that there will be series for older children, tweens, teens, etc. I highly recommend these books for parents of young children, teachers, and catechists.

These books were provided to me for free by Pauline Books and Media in exchange for an honest review. If you found these books helpful, please click here, here, and/or here and hit Yes!

Understanding Love and Responsibility (Pauline Books and Media)

Last year, I was privileged to receive a review copy of Love and Responsibility from Pauline Books and Media. I remember having a very profound sense of amazement reading the late Karol Wotyla's (Pope John Paul II) word. I also remember feeling over my head reading these words and wishing that I was smarter or that there was some guide in common everyday language so that I could better understand this. Well my prayers (and I imagine the prayers of many others were answered) with the release of Understanding Love and Responsibility.

This is the second book I have had the opportunity to review by the author, Dr. Richard Spinello. He has written several books about Pope John Paul II and his writings, so I knew this was the right person to undertake this book. Chapter One begins with a discussion of who Wotyla was and why we should want to read Love and Responsibility. If you own both books, like myself, you'll want to read this chapter before reading anything in Love and Responsibility. Each subsequent chapter then focuses on a specific section of Love and Responsibility. As ways of helping the common person grasp this text, Dr. Spinello provides examples, summaries, and simpler English. There are also a great amount of footnotes, some of which provide interesting cross-references to Wotyla's other works.

While it might be superficial to say, I found the concluding chapter of this book to be the most beneficial to me. Dr. Spinello not only beautifully and succinctly summarized Love and Responsibility, but he also provided a framework for defending Wotyla's work, which might prove helpful to some. Understanding Love and Responsibility is billed as a companion book, and that it is. However, I would argue that you could read it on its own, even though I know that wasn't the author's intent. My recommendation is that you read this book by itself first. Once you are finished, if you find yourself wanting to dig deeper, then by all means pick up Love and Responsibility. Be sure to keep this companion book handy. Otherwise, you'll risk getting overwhelmed by the depth that Wotyla can dive.

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

Pauline Books and Media: Love and Responsibility

Before Karol Wojtyla was elected to pope and became John Paul II, he had already written what was arguably his greatest work. Let that sink in for a moment. The great saint who gave us fourteen encyclicals such as Ecclesia De Eucharistia, Fides et Ratio, and Evangelium Vitae had already written a work greater than perhaps all of his encyclicals put together. This book was entitled Love and Responsibility, and if you love reading (soon-to-be) Saint John Paul II's writings then you'll definitely want to check out this book.

I must admit that I feel ill-equipped to review Love and Responsibility. In fact, I've been at this book for months trying to parse through it and understand it to the best of my ability. A work like this requires multiple readings to begin to even comprehend all of the topics covered, and unfortunately, I was not able to devote my time to multiple readings. However, I appreciate the new translation and notes the translator, Grzegorz Ignatik, provided, as I believe I would have had an even harder time reading this work before the new translation. As a point of introduction, there are five main topics in this book:

• The Person and the Drive
• The Person and Love
• The Person and Chastity
• Justice with Respect to the Creator
• Sociology and Ethics

The text is highly philosophical and contains copious footnotes from the translator. One should try not to get bogged down though and realize that Blessed John Paul was writing about what real human love is. As far as I can surmise from the text, we best find love when we give love ourselves. Also covered in this book is the the dignity of each individual and the "responsibility" portion of the title. Our society today has warped love, and people are used and discarded by other people. That is not how God intended love when he created man and woman. Therefore, we must not only be responsible with the love we give but the love we receive as well.

It's hard to pin down a section I could describe as my favorite, but I did have one that did stand out to me. Pope John Paul II states, "Although a second marriage after the death of a spouse is justified and permitted, it is nevertheless by all means praiseworthy to remain in a state of widowhood, for in this way the union with the person who passed away is, among other things, better expressed. After all, the very value of the person does not pass away and the spiritual union with him can and should continue, even when the bodily union has ceased." This is referred to in the book as absolute monogamy and something in which I firmly believe. Like this topic and many others in the book, I appreciate the fact that Pope John Paul II didn't shy away from truth.

I would love to tell you that Love and Responsibility  is a book you can pick up and read one weekend and walk away feeling wiser and spiritually richer. On the contrary, it is a VERY challenging read. That is not to discourage you from reading this 5-star book. Quite the contrary. Anything worth understanding will take effort on your part. You will have to pore over this book and struggle to understand some points of it. The fruit it will yield you, though, will be all the sweeter. Pick this book up along with Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body, and you will have the two essential texts for seeing into the mind of the brilliant Saint John Paul II.

If you would like to learn more about John Paul II's teaching on human love, check out Pauline Books and Media's site on Love and Responsibility by clicking here for many great resources! As always, if you found this review helpful, please click the link and hit Yes!

Catholic Monday: At the Heart of the Gospel

It's Monday again, and I'm getting a strange feeling of déjà vu. I get told by many people that I run a very niche blog, and if you've reviewed one Catholic book, you've reviewed them all. I realize how it can seem that way to the outsider. I do try to combat that by reading books from different authors and different publishers that deal with different facets of Catholicism. However, it's Monday and I am reviewing ANOTHER book about Theology of the Body written by Christopher West and published by Image Catholic Books...hence, my déjà vu. (See this post.)

At the Heart of the Gospel is the second Christopher West book I have read in as many months. I say this not to brag, but as a point of reference. The first one I read was Fill These Hearts, which left me with mixed feelings. Everything I expected and wanted from "Fill These Hearts" was found in "At the Heart of the Gospel." Mr. West's audience for this book is anyone who is involved with the New Evangelization, in hopes that they/we will use the message of Theology of the Body (TOB) to reach out to those who are "sexually broken" and in need of healing.

Despite this book being only 7 chapters, it is a very dense read. Each chapter is between twenty and forty pages long and therefore makes you read slowly. If you try to rush through it, you will miss a great deal, so pace yourself. I normally don't appreciate lengthy chapters  in books, as they tend to drone on, but it felt necessary in this book. Mr. West laid out a remarkable history of how our culture became "sexually broken" and what we as a Church must do to fix it and redeem the body.

The chapter which clicked most with me was "The Narrow Gate Between Idolatry and Iconoclasm." I have a great love for icons, and if if you love icons like I do, you know that they are more than just pretty pictures. They are prayers and windows into Heaven, which reveal theological truths to us. Mr. West uses the history of icons, idolatry, and iconoclasm as an apt metaphor for the body. Like icons, the body started out pure and holy. People became twisted though and veered off toward idolatry with sacred images, much like we veered off by idolizing the body. Iconoclasm occurred, just as our puritanical nature occurred. Eventually, icons were restored and seen as not evil in and of themselves. We hope one day the body will reach this state again.

This was a fascinating read for me. It made me realize that we have a hard battle ahead of us to set the pendulum rightly in the middle where it belongs. We are fighting against not only a culture that has grown accustomed to debasing the body, but also against the puritanical mindset on the opposite end. Blessed John Paul II's Theology of the Body has laid out a plan for us, and we must follow it. Christopher West's books will help us get there, especially this one, as he quotes from Blessed John Paul II and his other works. Five star book. Pick it up if Theology of the Body interests you.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review. For helpful links related to this book see below. As always, if you found this review helpful, please click this link, and hit "Yes."

• Author's Web Site
• More Info
• Read Chapter One
• Author Bio

Catholic Monday: Fill These Hearts

Today in the Catholic Corner, I am reviewing a book by one of the quintessential authors on Theology of the Body, Christopher West. For those of you unfamiliar with Theology of the Body, it was a series of 129 lectures Blessed John Paul II gave which showed his integrated vision of the human person - body, soul, and spirit. They dealt with love, purpose of life, marriage, sex, gender, etc.

I must admit that this is my first time reading not only the author, but also the subject, so I wasn't exactly sure what to expect from Fill These Hearts. The first thing I noticed, though, was the precise organization of this book. Broken into three parts, "Desire, Design, and Destiny," Mr. West displayed a clear thought pattern of where he wanted to take you in this book. I appreciated the alliterative sections as it made the message of this book easier to remember. What exactly is our ultimate desire, design, and destiny? Union with God, of course.

Whether every person realizes it or not, we are all designed for Union with God and will not feel complete unless we are reunited with Him. We also desire love, from God and other people. As a Christian, I was taught about love a lot growing up. I was told that there are different types of love, including love of friends (philia), romantic love (eros), and unconditional love (agape). Agape is the one we are always told to aim for, but this book does a fine job defending and explaining eros, which when rightly directed is a  good thing. Yes, we can distort it and turn it into lust, but eros can also be an on-fire, longing type of love, which we should have about our eternal destiny of Heaven.

I also appreciated the personal stories that Mr. West shared in this book. When one becomes an expert on a subject, it is easy to depersonalize the subject and write a book in textbook format. However, the author's stories made me relate to him better and feel connected to him. He didn't paint himself as a saint, but showed us his self-portrait, warts and all.

I did have one big gripe with the book though, and that was that every chapter had a quote from a popular song underneath the chapter title. Did I recognize all these songs? Yes, but with the song choices, movie references, and other pop culture sprinklings, it felt that this book was tailored to a very specific audience and would be dated quickly, as songs and movies can quickly fall out of fashion with the next big song or movie. This means the book might not stand the test of time and could fade with this generation, which is a shame.

Overall though, this is a very well-written and informative book. It is easy to read, and made the subject matter less intimidating for someone who had no prior knowledge of it. I wish all the pop culture references would have been left out though. I don't think anything would have been lost from the book if they were omitted, and the message would have still been just as clear. So for all the pop culture references, I am giving the book 4 out of 5 stars. I understood them and appreciated them, but an older reader or younger reader probably would not have.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review. Here are some helpful links related to the book.

• Author's Website
• More Info
• Author Bio