What to Read

The Next American Economy: Nation, State, and Markets in an Uncertain World
Samuel Gregg
Encounter Books, 336 pages

America’s economy has succeeded and become the strongest in the world because it was built on free-market capitalism, says Samuel Gregg. In recent years, however, increasing government regulation, encroaching socialist ideals, and competition from other world powers has raised new challenges to economic freedom. The solution: get back to our founders’ original vision. This book advocates for a robust market economy that respects entrepreneurship, supply-and-demand forces, and the common good. America, Gregg suggests, can do this — trust the capitalist system — and still conduct international policy in the nation’s best interests without apology or protectionism. He makes a compelling argument.

Love Him Ever More: A 9-Day Personal Retreat with the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Fr. Joe Laramie, S.J.
Ave Maria Press, 192 pages

Pope St. John Paul II once said that the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which the Church celebrates this year on June 16, “reminds us of the mystery of the love of God for the people of all times.” Sadly, devotion to the Sacred Heart is not as popular in parish life and personal piety as it was a half-century ago. Here’s a book that seeks to spark a revival: using Gospel passages along with the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, Jesuit Fr. Joe Laramie, North American director of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, has produced a nine-day retreat that invites personal reflection on one’s own woundedness and God’s merciful healing. It’s a retreat, one might say, that gets to the heart of the matter.

How the Eucharist Can Save Civilization
R. Jared Staudt
TAN Books, 360 pages

The Catholic Church was instrumental in the development of Western civilization; the promptings of faith and the mandate to take the gospel to the corners of the earth led directly to great progress in education, art, science, health care, and governance that advanced human flourishing. Yet as Western cultures have become more secularized, the loss of a moral center has resulted in a certain decline. Jared Staudt urges the Catholic faithful to turn anew to faith and devotion to the Eucharist as a primary source of power, so that a resurgent Church might halt this decay and build Western civilization back to its proper glory.