When I decided to become Catholic, I was ravenous for information about the Church! Sad to say, I had a fairly hard time finding something that was simple enough, without jargon, wasn’t written in 1960 and clearly explained the basics of the Catholic faith.

I finally stumbled upon The Catholicism Answer Book: The 300 Most Frequently Asked Questions, which laid down enough of the basics that I was able to move on to more advanced reading. I wish I’d had this book: Waking up Catholic by Chad Torgerson.

Chad is a convert from the Protestant faith and does a lovely job hitting all the basics of Catholicism. While it’s useful for any Catholic RCIA candidate or Catholic newbie, I think it’s especially helpful for those converting from a Protestant denomination. There are many common objections that Protestants tend to have of Catholicism, such as the veneration of Mary, the veneration of the saints, the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, tradition versus Bible-only, and the need for confession, or reconciliation.

Torgerson explains how he once held all of these very objections to the Catholic faith, in fact arguing them quiet often 🙂 (it’s amazing how God coverts us!), and explains how he overcame them in a way that I think will make sense to many Protestants. I find that many of the objections they hold are simply a lack of understanding. If we can just get them to listen to WHY Catholics believe what they do and practice what they do, I think many would come to see that Catholicism is the fullest revelation of the Christian faith. I know I have figured that out in spades over the last few years!

While I think he missed some key reasons for confession and why we venerate Mary, he does hit the basics, which is a great starting point for further study. I would encourage you to learn more about reconciliation by reading the book 7 Secrets of Confession by Vinny Flynn and to especially learn all you can about Mary (you will be amazed!) by reading a book like Meet Your Mother by Mark Miravalle. I am still learning so much about Mary and am continually amazed at the unique role she played in assisting our Lord with our salvation. Both of these books are very easy to read and give a well-rounded, in-depth look at these facets of the faith.

If your RCIA program has not provided you with a good resource for learning the basics of the faith outside of class (I know ours gave us print-outs that were very dated and not terribly helpful), this is an excellent option to help you get started on the road to Catholicism. If there’s a teaching you disagree with (and surely there will be one or two), please take the time to read further about it. I found that when I bothered to delve deeply into any topic I didn’t understand, I eventually saw the truth. Becoming Catholic is no easy feat… it takes time and dedication!

What resources did you find most helpful in the RCIA process? Any great books you recommend for Catholic newbies? Please share!

Editor’s Note: This book was provided to me free of charge in exchange for a fair review.

I chose this book because the author, Fr. Ron Rolheiser, has captured my attention with his newspaper columns which show up periodically in my local diocese paper and from his bi-weekly emails. He is extremely intelligent in his approach to Catholicism, yet somehow also really cuts to the heart of the matter in a plainspoken way in just a few short words. Provided for free by the Blogging for Books program, I grabbed this one the instant I saw it to hear this author expound in more detail.

After reading the blog, if you’ d like a copy, post a comment sharing why & I’ll give away 2 copies to random winners after 10 people have commented.

“The Holy Longing: The Search for a Christian Spirituality,” which was originally written 15 years ago and is now updated and re-released, attempts to explore the longing, the burning, the dissatisfaction many of us feel or have felt in our lives… that unquenched desire we eternally have burning inside. Basically, he reminds us that we were not meant for this world, so we will not be truly consummated and fully happy until we reach heaven. As he says beautifully, “…in this life, all symphonies remain unfinished.”

This affects all aspects of our lives and is important to keep in mind when we despair over some event or circumstance. It also helps to explain suffering. We WILL suffer here because we have not reached our full potential and we should accept that and offer that suffering as work to our Lord — or through the Blessed Virgin to our Lord — that His will be done.

Here are some circumstances where you might find yourself, and where if you can accept its incompletion, you can find the most peace here on earth:

• A marriage that is past the honeymoon stage
• A family member who has fallen away from the faith
• An unfulfilled dream or career
• The loss of a job
• Sexual desire unquenched by your significant other

Father Rolheiser says the realization that all will not be completed in this life must be mourned and allowed to ascent to heaven just as Jesus did:

“Each of us must, at some point, go into the desert and bewail his or her virginity. It is when we fail to do this, and because we fail to do it, that we go often through life demanding, angry, bitter, disappointed and too prone to blame others and life itself for our frustrations. When we fail to mourn properly our incomplete lives then this incompleteness becomes a gnawing restlessness, a bitter center, that robs our lives of all delight… We are built for the infinite, Grand Canyons without a bottom. Because of that we will, this side of eternity, always be lonely, restless, incomplete, still a virgin–living in the torment of the insufficiency of everything attainable.”

While on first read, this sounds a bit depressing, I think that the realization that all will not be perfect in this life is far more beneficial than to go through life as, he says, bitter, disappointed and angry. I know far too many people like that. Instead, accepting that my dream to become a dancer one day or that my lifestyle is far from what I imagined it would be is OK and normal, gives me more peace than becoming a dancer or living in greater physical abundance would ultimately bring me.

For married couples, he addresses the loss of the honeymoon phase and how they need to accept each new phase of their relationship,letting the past incarnation go.

“To sustain anything in this life we must continually recognize that the first fervor, that special electricity we would die for, never lasts and that we must be open to receive a new spirit within the relationship,” he says. “The downside of this is that all honeymoons die, but the upside is that God is always giving us something richer, deeper life and fuller spirit.”

I highly recommend this book for those who enjoy philosophy and really digging into the depths of the theology of the Catholic church. As I just heard Teresa Tomeo say, “This is a thinking person’s religion.” I couldn’t agree more, and Fr. Rolheiser is one of its great thinkers of our age. Philosophy has always appealed to me, as does a good intellectual debate, and this book strikes that chord. It’s funny, I always thought religion was for the ignorant (I thought they were just blindly believing an ideology without questioning it), but how wrong I was. Catholicism is the ultimate for intellectuals. It is the true fulfillment of all knowledge by adding the element of faith.

To sum up this book, I love this quote: “The dream for perfect consummation, like the dream to become a superstar, must, at some point, be mourned and left to ascend. Otherwise…our daydreams will perennially rob us of the simple happiness of life.”

Blogging for Books provided this book to me for free in exchange for an honest review.

As my family prepared to go to Disney World for spring break, our first real family vacation, I warned my son, who is prone to depression after any significant, fun event (a visit to his grandparents, birthdays, trips), that happiness is fleeting. It’s a tough lesson to learn – and one that I think many of us never realize – but I’m working to show him not to so desperately mourn the loss of an event that has passed. We have to enjoy it to its fullest while it’s going on and get back to normal when it’s done. We shouldn’t cry because it’s over, but be happy that it occurred.

Pope Francis echoed my sentiments recently in a great talk to seminarians and nuns about how to live their lives. He warned them to avoid the temptation of thinking “the latest smartphone, the fastest moped and a car that turns heads” will make them happy. And in one of my favorite statements from this humble, down-to-earth pope, he recommended riding a bike, or if you have to drive a car, just “get a humbler one.”

I think chasing happiness is what many of us get caught up in during this life. Constantly searching for our next thrill, our next moment of contentment or even ecstasy, our next chance at perfection. “True joy doesn’t come from ‘living on the edge’ and having wild, fleeting experiences,” said the pope in his talk. As soon as the event is over, we’re left in depression and in a panic for “what’s next?” This leads to continued depression and dissatisfaction with life.

I’ve seen people who continually seek for a new place to live that’s “perfect”. The weather is better, the scenery is prettier, there are more things to do and places to go. But after the newness wears off, they find themselves in the same search for perfection, only someplace else.

A book I’m currently reading “The Holy Longing” by Ron Rolheiser (Image Catholic Books, 2014), which I received as a complimentary review copy, talks about the restless energy within each of us. Father Rolheiser says that this is because we are apart from God; we are not where we belong; we are not at our Eternal home, so this restless energy remains in us and we must harness it properly.

He says this restlessness can lead us to the extreme of drugs, sexual trysts, and other wild behavior to try to quench this thirst. Or it can lead us in the other extreme like Mother Teresa, who directed all her energy to helping others. He suggests a happy medium may be the best approach for most of us in this life.

For me, I tried to teach my son that while there is happiness in this life, there is sadness, too and the good news is that sadness is also fleeting. This too shall pass. But I want him to know as he embarks on the journey of life the only true lasting happiness that he will find is by plugging into God. He provides us that peace and contentment through the ups and downs that keeps us on an even keel and helps us bear even the most difficult moments, knowing that our suffering will work for our redemption.

As we recently passed the pope’s first year, I look forward to a new book from Loyola Press called “The Church of Mercy” that collects all of his writings from this first year arranged thematically for easy reading. I feel like Pope Francis is “my” pope, because he became pope just as I became Catholic. But this has been a busy year for me and I’ve not paid as much attention as I would have liked to his homilies and writings. I’m looking forward to having it encapsulated for me in an easy-to-read format.

What are some of your favorite statements and words from Pope Francis in his first year?

I talk a lot about books on this blog, because first off, I love to read, so that’s how I tend to get a good bit of my information, but also because Catholic books have helped me so much in my journey as a newbie.

I just set up a board on Pinterest of my top Catholic Books. I thought that would be a great way to visually display some of my favorites. Come take a look and see if there are any you haven’t read. Plus if you click through and buy any of them from Amazon, I get a small kick-back to help support my blog :).

Follow Lyn Mettler’s board My Favorite Catholic Books on Pinterest.

And please share your own favorite Catholic books in the comments. I’m always looking for a new read!