What to Read

American Pilgrimage: A Historical Journey Through Catholic Life in a New World
Christopher Shannon
Augustine Institute/Ignatius Press, 560 pages

Here’s a hefty book that will provide wonderful reading for your Thanksgiving weekend. It’s a grand survey of U.S. Catholic history that reaches back to the days of exploration and colonial life in North America prior to the establishment of the nation and continuing through the struggles and successes that met Catholics as the country expanded and prospered. Christopher Shannon, who teaches history at Christendom College, offers a tremendous page-turner on how the Catholic Church has helped shape the U.S. into the nation it is today — and how the Church must continue to engage our society and culture with the truth of Christ’s saving message.
 
Becoming Eucharistic People: The Hope and Promise of Parish Life
Timothy P. O’Malley
Ave Maria Press, 121 pages

The Church in the U.S. is in the midst of a three-year movement for a Eucharistic Revival, one that comes on the heels of several surveys in recent years revealing that many Catholics do not believe in the Real Presence. Theologian Timothy P. O’Malley argues that a key to reinvigorating this faith is that parishes “must cultivate a culture” that fosters true reverence for the Eucharist and its celebration in the Mass. That takes more than great liturgies to encompass an entire worldview that includes sound catechesis, eucharistic devotion, and unity of the faithful centered on the Body of Christ. This book is a blueprint for how to accomplish that.

The Seven Steps to Sanctification: How to Awaken the Gifts of the Holy Spirit Within You
Walter Farrell, O.P., and Dominic Hughes, O.P.
Sophia Institute Press, 200 pages

Catholics receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit through the sacraments, particularly Confirmation, but they aren’t automatic: we have to nurture and use them else they stagnate. Prayer and attention to the interior life are essential, but note that the seven gifts — understanding, knowledge, wisdom, counsel, piety, fortitude, and fear of the Lord — are virtues, and virtues are habits we form by repetition and an act of the will. The late Dominican authors of this contemporary spiritual classic will guide the reader in how to tap into those interior gifts and make them fully manifest in his or her life.