Why I Love Being Catholic

The authors are people just like you they've laughed, cried, suffered, and celebrated their way through all the ups and downs of life. Some have been Catholic all their lives; others have taken a longer route home. All, however, can speak to the amazing gift that the Catholic faith has been in their lives. These days, it's challenging to be a Catholic. The collection of entries in Why I Love Being Catholic celebrates the best of the Catholic faith, highlights the everyday miracles taking place all around us, and reminds us that there are thousands of everyday heroes out there who dare to have big dreams for the Church. Even amidst the challenges of our times, holiness is possible, grace abounds, and there is every reason to live our lives with hope!

“Liz Kelly’s love of her Catholic faith is an inspiration. I highly recommend her wonderful book.” —Matthew Kelly, New York Times best-selling author of The Rhythm of Life In May Crowning, Mass, and Merton, Liz Kelly, a thirty-something writer and jazz singer, eagerly shares her ardent love for the Catholic faith. While the beliefs of the church are important to Kelly, her passion is really ignited by the holy people and places, the beloved rituals, and the rich spiritual traditions of this living faith. She celebrates them here, with wit, affection, and candor. Kelly has realized that “the litany of reasons to love being Catholic is extraordinary.” These include every­thing from the crucifix, kneelers, and Ash Wednesday to Flannery O’Connor, the Swiss Guard, and Tenebrae. Though she writes that, “Mine is not an extraordinary faith, so much as a faith growing a little messy, a little rough and subversive around the edges,” it is a rich, inspiring faith, celebrated by a fresh, young Catholic voice.

Are you Catholic? You must read this book. Bo Sanchez​ wants to help you love Jesus more. When he was a twelve years old, Bo found Jesus in his Catholic faith. And his life was changed forever. Through this eye-opening book, Bo also wants to help you appreciate your Catholic faith more. He’ll explain, in the simplest way possible, the ten amazing reasons why he loves being Catholic. Read this book and you’ll never see your Catholic faith the same way again. — When you purchase this book, you also become a blessing to others since Bo donates the royalties from his books to his many dynamic ministries.

In his first full-length book since converting to Roman Catholicism over ten years ago, Thomas Howard presents his wonderful, refreshing insights on the "glad tidings" of the deeper meaning of Catholic piety, dogma, spirituality, vision and practice, rendered in his unique style of prose for which he is well-known. The book's chapters take the form of lay meditations on Catholic teaching and practice, opening up in practical and simple terms the richness at work in virtually every detail of Catholic prayer, piety, liturgy and experience.

Drawn from the eponymous blog essays on faith, culture, and lives of Christian discipleship by young Jesuit priests and seminarians for young adult seekers.

This book is…an act of witnessing, a testimony to the generosity of God that Catholics experience in accepting and living out the gift of faith that Christ has bestowed on them.—from the Introduction A bishop is not only a spiritual shepherd but a teacher. In Being Catholic Archbishop Pilarczyk teaches in clear, concise language the basic beliefs and practices of Catholics and what shapes a Catholic's thinking. The book discusses: HOW WE BELIEVE: Believing Catholic is a matter of knowing, understanding and responding to a story-the true story of God's love for us. It offers "the fundamentals that have to be there if thinking and practicing Catholic are going to have any appeal or make any sense." HOW WE PRACTICE: Reflections on the behaviors that express our faith and our membership in the Church, such as going to Mass, receiving the sacraments and raising children Catholic. By being a practicing Catholic, we strengthen our behaviors so we can proclaim them to others. HOW WE THINK: A series of thoughtful, pastoral and heartfelt reflections on all aspects of our lives in the world, seen through the eyes of one deeply faithful to the tradition and teachings of the church. Topics for "Thinking Catholic" include respect for life, spiritual maturity and a universal Church.

The well-known and very popular Catholic couple, Scott and Kimberly Hahn, have been constantly travelling and speaking all over North America for the last few years about their conversion to the Catholic Church. Now these two outstanding Catholic apologists tell in their own words about the incredible spiritual journey that led them to embrace Catholicism. Scott Hahn was a Presbyterian minister, the top student in his seminary class, a brilliant Scripture scholar, and militantly anti-Catholic ... until he reluctantly began to discover that his "enemy" had all the right answers. Kimberly, also a top-notch theology student in the seminary, is the daughter of a well-known Protestant minister, and went through a tremendous "dark night of the soul" after Scott converted to Catholicism. Their conversion story and love for the Church has captured the hearts and minds of thousands of lukewarm Catholics and brought them back into an active participation in the Church. They have also influenced countless conversions to Catholicism among their friends and others who have heard their powerful testimony. Written with simplicity, charity, grace and wit, the Hahns' deep love and knowledge of Christ and of Scripture is evident and contagious throughout their story. Their love of truth and of neighbor is equally evident, and their theological focus on the great importance of the family, both biological and spiritual, will be a source of inspiration for all readers.

In this provocative work, which could not be timelier, Garry Wills, one of our country's most noted writers and historians, offers a powerful statement of his Catholic faith. Beginning with a reflection on his early experience of that faith as a child and later as a Jesuit seminarian, Wills reveals the importance of Catholicism in his own life. He goes on to challenge, in clear and forceful terms, the claim that criticism or reform of the papacy is an assault on the faith itself. For Wills, a Catholic can be both loyal and critical, a loving child who stays with his father even if the parent is wrong. Wills turns outward from his personal experiences to present a sweeping narrative covering two thousand years of church history, revealing that the papacy, far from being an unchanging institution, has been transformed dramatically over the millennia -- and can be reimagined in the future. At a time when the church faces one of its most difficult crises, Garry Wills offers an important and compelling entrée into the discussion of the church's past -- and its future. Intellectually brisk and spiritually moving, Why I Am a Catholic poses urgent questions for Catholic and non-Catholic readers alike.