Sunday, February 18, 2007

Book Notes - Word to Caesar, Apologetics, Ratzinger and Chesterton

Yesterday I finished reading Hillside Education's Word to Caesar by Geoffrey Trease. It's a wonderful adventure story that brings in lots of personalities, culture and geography from Ancient Rome. A good read particularly for middle school age Latin students. (A few scenes might be troubling to more sensitive readers.)

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Our teen catechism/apologetics study group has been forcing me to dig deep into my library for helpful materials. I've been especially grateful for the following:

The Catechism of the Catholic Church
Catholicism and Fundamentalism by Karl Keating
The Catholic Answers Website
Unabridged Christianity: Biblical Answers to Common Questions about the Roman Catholic Faith by Fr. Mario P. Romero (Queenship Publishing)

I've also ordered Jim Burnham and Frank Chacon's Beginning Apologetics series.

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I mentioned earlier that I breezed through portions of a several of Cardinal Ratzinger's books on liturgy to prepare for a discussion/workshop on Sacred Music. It seems that over the past year, I've been turning to many books by both Pope Benedict XVI (Ratzinger) and G.K. Chesterton and thoroughly enjoying them. It occured to me just recently, though, that I am starting to make a strong connection between them in my head. I think it's because a) they have a wonderful way of helping me make sense out of the world and myself and b) their writing style leads you up to such wonderful "Aha!" moments.

2 comments:

Christine said...

I completely agree with you about the "Aha" moments, especially in regards to Pope Benedict XVI. I have to admit that Chesterton's Everlasting Man was one of the hardest books that I have read. I kept having to reread certain paragraphs, but I would do it again. Your posts on Chesterton are inspiring to pull another one of his books off of our shelf.

love2learnmom said...

You might want to try St. Francis of Assisi. It's quite a bit shorter but just plain wonderful too. I might have even liked it better because I was able to digest it all as once piece, if you know what I mean. :)