Carl E. Olson's Blog, page 172
January 18, 2013
A shocker in Philly
No, I'm not talking about the hiring of Chip Kelly away from the Oregon Ducks (who play all of ten minutes from my home). Here is the surprising news, as mentioned by David Pierre, Jr., a contributor to CWR, on his MediaReport.com site:
The conviction of Philadelphia's Msgr. William J. Lynn last June was historic
and widely trumpeted by an overheated media, as Lynn became the first
member of the Catholic hierarchy to be found guilty in a criminal court
for endangering children.
And the sole reason Lynn sits in jail today is because former priest Edward Avery
had pleaded guilty to sexually violating a 10-year-old boy in the late
1990s. Prosecutors claimed that Lynn should not have placed Avery into a
ministry assignment because the priest had a prior abuse accusation
dating back to the 1970s. Had Lynn kept Avery out of public ministry,
prosecutors charged, he would not have been able to abuse the
10-year-old.
But in a truly shocking development, Avery took the witness stand today in a Philadelphia courtroom and recanted under oath his guilty plea.
This remarkable turn-around indicates that Msgr. Lynn may likely be sitting in jail based on a crime that never even happened!
The Church, Nonprofits, and Taxes
The Church, Nonprofits, and Taxes | Dimitri Cavalli | Catholic World Report
Guidelines for nonprofits are often misunderstood. And
they are sometimes misrepresented by those seeking to quiet churches.
Every so often, there are calls for the federal
government to revoke the tax-exempt status of churches. The most common
arguments made for taxing churches are that exemptions deny the government important sources of revenue to pay its bills, and that many churches (usually
the ones that continue to teach traditional sexuality morality such as the
Catholic, Evangelical, and Mormon churches) often abuse their tax-exempt status by violating IRS guidelines that prohibit them from
engaging in political activity. The chronic obsession with the activities of
the churches in the public square has obscured the fact that they are only a
part of the overall nonprofit sector. According to data collected by the National Center for Charitable
Statistics (NCCS), there are over 1.5 million registered
nonprofit organizations (with combined total
assets of nearly $5.7 trillion as of August 2012) in the United States
today—many of which are nonreligious institutions and organizations that, like
churches, seek to influence public policy despite being tax-exempt.
Houses of worship and charities are registered with the
IRS as 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organizations. Since financial contributions to
501 (c) (3) nonprofits are tax-deductible,
donors have the incentive to open their wallets.
IRS guidelines for nonprofits—which
are available on the agency’s Web site—are
often misunderstood. While many people use these terms interchangeably, the IRS
specifically defines “politics” as
seeking to influence the election of candidates and “lobbying” as
seeking to influence legislation.
According to the IRS, all 501 (c) (3) nonprofits cannot endorse or oppose candidates for elected
office and make financial contributions to political campaigns. In 1964, the
liberal Protestant magazine Christian Century lost its tax-exempt status for one year after it
endorsed President Lyndon Johnson for re-election.
Nonprofit organizations, however, can certainly praise or
criticize candidates, elected officials, political parties, and their stands on
public policy issues and controversies without specifically telling people to
vote for or against them. This is what many nonprofits have been doing since
the passage of the 1954 Internal Revenue Act, which added section 501 (c) to
the federal tax code that specified the types of organizations that qualified
for tax-exemption.
January 17, 2013
Beauty: A Necessity, Not a Luxury
Beauty: A Necessity, Not a Luxury | Fr. Charles Klamut | Homiletic & Pastoral Review
Just when I am about to succumb to the sadness and living death of nihilism, some piercing ray of beauty breaks open my heart, and the breath of possibility returns.
I recently visited the Botanical Garden in St Louis. Amid the sights
and smells, the colors and creatures, the sun, the architecture, and
the sheer gratuity of so much botanical diversity, I felt happy to be
alive. Drinking it in, I turned to a friend and said, “How could we
live without this?” He replied, “We couldn’t.”
I’ve been thinking about this little exchange. Upon reflection, I am
becoming certain that they are not just sentimental words, but the
truth. And with this conviction, I’m not alone.
Luigi Giussani, the great 20th century priest, educator,
and writer (and whose cause for canonization has just begun), insisted
throughout his great life on our need for beauty; for beautiful, real
things which have the power to awaken our hearts. During Cardinal Joseph
Ratzinger’s homily for Fr Giussani’s funeral in 2005, two months shy of
his unsuspected elevation to the papacy, he said that Fr Giussani was
“wounded by the desire for beauty.” He noted how much Fr Giussani loved
music, and said that, in looking for Beauty itself, he was looking for
Christ.
In Giussani, we have an author whose books overflow with quotations
from poets, novelists and philosophers; a priest whose ministry to
students often took place on hikes through the Alps; a teacher who
raised the eyebrows of colleagues by walking into the classroom at
Berchet High School, back in his early days of teaching, carrying a
phonograph with records of Chopin and Beethoven, in order to provoke his
students with the wound of beauty. Jesus said: “You will know them by
their fruits.” By sharing his own wound for beauty with his students,
the fruit of Giussani has become a movement in the church called:
Communion and Liberation, which has moved the hearts of its members in
almost 100 countries now.
Giussani is not the only modern day Catholic luminary to champion the cause of beauty.
Social Justice and the Radical Left
Social Justice and the Radical Left | Christopher White | Catholic World Report
An interview with the co-author of Takeover: How the Left Corrupted Liberalism in the Pursuit of Social Justice
Donald T. Critchlow is the Barry
Goldwater Chair of American Institutions at Arizona State University, editor
of the Journal of Policy History and general editor for Cambridge Essential Histories (CUP).
His new book, Takeover: How the Left Corrupted
Liberalism in the Pursuit of Social Justice (co-authored with William
Rorabaugh, published by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2012), is an
indictment of the leftist radicalism that persists in American politics today.
For Critchlow, this radicalism has led to unprecedented attacks on religious
liberties, a looming financial crisis, abortion on demand, and a redefining of
freedom. Recently, in late 2012, CWR contributor Christopher White spoke with
Critchlow about the political and cultural challenges that will significantly
shape the future of the United States—and why Catholics should be both aware
and concerned.
CWR: In
Takeover, you refer frequently to
the "New Progressives." Who are the New Progressives and how did they
emerge?
Donald T. Critchlow: Takeover: How the Left Corrupted Liberalism in the
Pursuit of Social Justice answers an
important question that many Americans began asking with the ascent of Barack
Obama to the White House: How did the
Democratic Party become so radical? Takeover shows
that liberalism underwent a profound transformation with the rise in the late
1960s and the early 1970s of a radical political formation the authors describe
as the New Progressives.
By
the early 1970s, the New Left’s anti-Vietnam War protests and other street
activism had faded away. But the radicalism remained. The activists simply
changed their tactics for remaking American society. After fighting against the
establishment, radical leaders discovered that they could achieve much more by
working within the system. They learned to harness politics and the courts to
pursue what they thought of as social justice. Becoming lawyers,
professors, journalists, consumer advocates, union leaders, community
organizers, and even politicians, left-wing activists morphed into a new
movement—the “New Progressives.” Takeover examines how the New Progressives colonized many
areas of American life in creative and powerful ways.
CWR: You note that the
civil rights revolution introduced “moral politics.” What do you mean by moral
politics—and do you consider this a positive or negative development?
January 16, 2013
Marvelous
That is how Dr. Jeff Mirus describes Dale Ahlquist's new book, 
The Complete Thinker: The Marvelous Mind of G.K. Chesterton, in a just posted review on the CatholicCulture.org:
Here is a book which took me by surprise: Dale Ahlquist’s explication of the thought of G. K. Chesterton in The Complete Thinker. Subtitled “The Marvelous Mind of G. K. Chesterton”, Ahlquist’s book explains Chesterton’s writing not only through many apt quotations but also by successfully distilling his varied writings into their key elements so that the reader has a clear framework of appreciation. Because Dale Ahlquist is a fine writer in his own right, the book is as enjoyable as it is enlightening. ...
For those who have found themselves in this unenviable position, this position of being on a walking tour while desiring air travel, The Complete Thinker provides a very well-structured introduction in a lively and entertaining style, without sacrificing GKC’s immense quotability. For those who have enjoyed Chesterton but have not had time to read even a small portion of his immense body of work, The Complete Thinker packs a great deal into a small space. And for those who are wondering if they should get started with Chesterton at all, reading Ahlquist’s appreciation will answer that question, probably by whetting the appetite.
Read the entire review at www.CatholicCulture.org. Ahlquist was interviewed by Catholic World Report a couple of months ago about the book; here is a taste:
CWR: You state, “Chesterton’s great accomplishment is that in addition to writing about everything, he puts it all together. He is a complete thinker.” How, in light of Chesterton’s writings, does one go about being a complete thinker?
Ahlquist: Chesterton says, “Thinking means connecting things.” Chesterton is the complete thinker in that he connects everything. It is, ironically, why he is so hard to categorize as a writer. He is bigger than all the categories. He keeps spilling over into different subjects that we would prefer to be kept watertight. We want religion kept out of politics. We want it kept out of economics. Well, we want religion kept out of everything! But we have also separated meaning from art, and art from beauty. We have separated health from human dignity, and have separated the family from the home. We have separated the big questions from the little questions and neither is getting answered very well.
As the Complete Thinker, Chesterton is the model thinker. One becomes a complete thinker by thinking like Chesterton!
"Reports of the death of the printed book may be exaggerated."
So writes Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, in a recent WSJ piece. Carr writes:
Half a decade into the e-book revolution, though, the prognosis for traditional books is suddenly looking brighter. Hardcover books are displaying surprising resiliency. The growth in e-book sales is slowing markedly. And purchases of e-readers are actually shrinking, as consumers opt instead for multipurpose tablets. It may be that e-books, rather than replacing printed books, will ultimately serve a role more like that of audio books—a complement to traditional reading, not a substitute.
How attached are Americans to old-fashioned books? Just look at the results of a Pew Research Center survey released last month. The report showed that the percentage of adults who have read an e-book rose modestly over the past year, from 16% to 23%. But it also revealed that fully 89% of regular book readers said that they had read at least one printed book during the preceding 12 months. Only 30% reported reading even a single e-book in the past year.
What's more, the Association of American Publishers reported that the annual growth rate for e-book sales fell abruptly during 2012, to about 34%. That's still a healthy clip, but it is a sharp decline from the triple-digit growth rates of the preceding four years.
However, the Pew Research Center survey (from Dec. 27, 2012) that Carr cites is titled, "E-book Reading Jumps; Print Book Reading Declines", which begs the question: is this a glass half full/half empty conversation? Lee Rainie and Maeve Duggan, the authors of the survey, state:
Prepare for Nationwide Pro-Life Passion with 20% off titles listed
Prepare for Nationwide Pro-Life Passion with 20% off titles listed!
Offer ends Tuesday January 22nd, 2013 at 12:00 midnight EST.
These prices are available online only through Ignatius.com
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is only one week left before the Walk for Life West Coast will take
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For more information about the Walk for Life West Coast, click here. For information about the March for Life in Washington D.C., click here.
Sale items are below the fold:
Letters to Gabriel
Karen Santorum
Letters to Gabriel is the story of Gabriel Michael's
short, but meaningful life, and a tribute to the sanctity of life, the
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Adam and Eve After the Pill
Mary Eberstadt
Adam and Eve after the Pill examines as no book has
before the seismic social changes caused by the sexual revolution. In
examining human behavior in the post-liberation world, Eberstadt
provocatively asks: Is food the new sex? Is pornography the new tobacco?
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The Appalling Strangeness of the Mercy of God
Ruth V.K. Pakaluk
This book is the powerful story of an amazing woman, Ruth Pakaluk,
who converted to Catholicism at Harvard, married her college sweetheart
and joyfully welcomed seven children. She became a renowned pro-life
leader and brilliant debater, who was struck with breast cancer and died
at the young age of forty-one. Also available as an e-book and audio download.
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Healing the Culture
Fr. Robert Spitzer, SJ
Father Spitzer, President of the Magis Institute and former
President of Gonzaga University, has been using the principles in this
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pro-life movement. The tremendous positive response he has received
inspired him to start the Life Principles Institute. This book is one of
the key resources used for this program. Also available as an e-book.
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Three Approaches to Abortion
Peter Kreeft
Three Approaches to Abortion, by popular author Peter
Kreeft, cuts through the nonsense of the "pro-choice" position. He shows
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Anti-Abortionist at Large
Raymond Dennehy
Dennehy, a professor of Philosophy at the University of San
Francisco, has debated pro-abortionists with great success in hostile
environments. This is his inspiring personal account of nearly four
decades of debating abortion on radio, television, and university
campuses.
“The most articulate and forceful voice in the United States to
explain and critique the abortion question in all its ramifications is
that of Professor Raymond Dennehy.”
—James V. Schall, S.J., Georgetown University
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Why Humanae Vitae Was Right
Janet E Smith
For the 25th anniversary year of the historic document Humanae Vitae
(1968), Janet Smith has gathered together twenty-one outstanding essays
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that Pope Paul VI was not simply correct, but prophetic.
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Architects of the Culture of Death
Donald DeMarco, PhD, Benjamin Wiker
In Architects of the Culture of Death, authors Donald
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and malevolent ideology promoted by influential thinkers who
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Covenant of Love
Fr. Richard Hogan, Bishop John M. Levoir
John Paul teaches that the keystone of Christian living today is
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this central message of his pontificate. It explores the influence of
Christ on the modern family, human intimacy, and sexuality and
illustrates the Pope's response to the violations of that familial
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The Debate Since Roe
Edited by Ann Conlon
This book is a perfect pro-life reader for those who have sat
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Culled from the Human Life Review's unique and unparalleled
37-year-record of anti-abortion advocacy, The Debate Since Roe features essays by doctors, lawyers, politicians, political scientists, philosophers, clerics, and journalists.
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Love and Responsibility
Karol Wojtyla
Drawing from his own pastoral experience as a priest and bishop
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Confessions of An Ex-Feminist
Lorraine V. Murray
This is the account of a woman who was born into a Catholic
family, but amidst the radical environment of the 1960's, she lost her
faith. Later in her forties, Murray experienced a mysterious series of
events in which it seemed that "someone" was inviting her back to God. Also available as an e-book.
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Sex and the Marriage Covenant
John Kippley
The thesis of this book is that God intends that sexual intercourse
should be at least implicitly a renewal of the marriage covenant. From
this it follows that the marriage covenant provides the criterion to
evaluate the morality of every sexual act. Thus the title, Sex and the Marriage Covenant, is an appropriate description of the book's contents.
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Male and Female He Created Them
Cardinal Jorge Medina-Estevez
A highly regarded author, teacher, prelate and strong defender of
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The Right to Privacy
Janet E Smith
Janet Smith, well-known philosophy professor and writer, presents a
critical look at the meaning of the "right to privacy" that has been so
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method of interpreting a legal document. Smith shows how these
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War Against Population
Jacqueline Kasun
The idea that humanity is multiplying at a terrible and
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Unplanned
Abby Johnson
Unplanned is a heart stopping personal drama of
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transformation that speaks hope and compassion into the political
controversy that surrounds this issue. Telling Abby's story from both
sides of the abortion clinic property line, this book is a must-read for
anyone who cares about the life versus rights debate and helping women
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Ten Universal Principles
Fr. Robert Spitzer, SJ
In Ten Universal Principles: A Brief Philosophy of the Life Issues,
Jesuit Father Robert Spitzer sets out, in a brief, yet highly-readable
and lucid style, ten basic principles that must govern the reasonable
person's thinking and acting about life issues. A highly-regarded
philosopher, Father Spitzer provides an intelligent outline for thinking
and talking about human life. Also available as an e-book and audio download.
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Films
October Baby
As the curtain rises, Hannah hesitantly steps onto the stage for
her theatrical debut in college. Yet before she can utter her first
lines, Hannah-unscripted-collapses in front of the stunned audience.
After countless medical tests, all signs point to one underlying factor:
Hannah's difficult birth. This revelation is nothing compared to what
she then learns from her parents: she was actually adopted ... after a
failed abortion attempt.
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Changing Sides
This film tells the powerful true story of the conversion of a
dedicated Planned Parenthood director to a leading Pro-life Activist.
Abby Johnson was the director of the abortion facility that was the
launching pad of the bold new pro-life effort - 40 Days for Life. This
film reveals what happens when people pray, fast, sacrifice, love their
enemies and take a stand on the most controversial issue of our time -
abortion.
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Love is a Choice
This video documents the heroic life of St. Gianna Molla through
interviews with her husband, children, friends, letters, and family
mementos. St. Gianna, who sacrificed her life to save her unborn baby,
was a mother, a medical doctor, a lover of opera, art, and culture; one
who can speak much to our present day especially when family life is
threatened on so many fronts.
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The Culture of Life
In the field of Bioethics, many current challenges are becoming
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"The Culture of Life" harmoniously blends scientific progress with a
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Eggsploitation
The infertility industry in the United States has grown to a
multi-billion dollar business. What is its main commodity? Human eggs.
Produced by The Center for Bioethics and Culture (Lines That Divide, 2009), Eggsploitation
spotlights the booming business of human eggs told through the tragic
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have been changed forever.
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Life After Abortion
The untold story from the other victims of abortion. Countless
women (and men) have been overwhelmed by post abortion trauma, resulting
in fear, anxiety, pain, and guilt. Many suffer in silence for years,
even decades after they realize the full toll of their choice. Life
After Abortion takes an honest look at the undeniable impact abortion
has had on real people.
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A Voice for Life
In 1977, Melissa Ohden survived a saline abortion procedure and
miraculously suffered no physical or mental damage. She returned to the
hospital where the abortion attempt was made in 2008 and gave birth to
her daughter. She is now a wife and mother who shares her powerful story
around the world, making a positive impact on the lives of those who
have been touched by abortion. She presents a moving message of hope,
healing and forgiveness.
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Life-Giving Love
Life-Giving Love is a great crash course in both the
theology and biology of human sexuality, guaranteed to teach you
something you didn't know about God's design for married love and
procreation. And more than that: it's an antidote to the anti-life
mentality so prevalent in our age. Watch and learn how to combat the
worldly lies that threaten married couples in body, heart, and spirit.
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Catholics and the Culture of War
Catholic apologist and radio host Tim Staples demonstrates how
several minor "battles" over the last 65 years have led to us to where
we are now... in a full-fledged war between two very different schools
of thought when it comes to what society says is right... or wrong. It's
a vivid look at what America used to be like-and how dramatically we
have changed.
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Bella
The acclaimed, award-winning theatrical hit that tells the moving
and life-affirming story about a beautiful waitress in a New York City
restaurant facing a crisis pregnancy and unemployment, and the loving
support she receives from a kind man with a mysterious past seeking to
heal deep wounds of his own. Bella is an inspiring film with an uplifting message that leaves a deep impact on its viewers.
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Catholic World Report
Vatican II and Religious Liberty
by Omar F.A. Gutierrez
Dignitatis Humanae, the Council document on religious freedom, represented a development of Church teaching, not a reversal of it.
Of all the documents produced by the Second Vatican Council, none had
more revisions, saw more debate, or garnered more controversy than the
“Declaration on Religious Liberty” Dignitatis Humanae. This is
in part because the document’s 15 tightly-packed paragraphs had the
burden of boldly defending the rights of conscience while at the same
time respecting the teaching of the embattled Church of the 19th
century. This was no easy task, so we should be ever grateful to the
conciliar Fathers for the declaration as we face challenges to our
religious liberty today.
Homiletic & Pastoral Review
John Paul II’s “Triptych” of the Human Person
by Charles Dern
An introduction to the first part of Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body.
We have good news! The rich teaching of John Paul II’s Theology of the
Body (TOB) is beginning to filter into seminaries, undergraduate
theology courses, and into specialized seminars. But despite this good
news, many of today’s priests, deacons, and religious likely were
educated before the insights from the TOB were integrated into various
seminary and monastic programs. Adding to this problem is that the TOB
was originally delivered as a series of talks, with its style
complicating and confounding what the late Pontiff was trying to
communicate. This problem is unfortunate (but not insurmountable)
because his Theology of the Body is essentially a series of reflections
on scripture passages, many of which appear in the regular Sunday
reading cycles. Given that most lay adults receive what precious little
instruction they do through Sunday homilies, they may be missing out on
some very profound insights that counteract utilitarian views of the
person, and misunderstandings of marriage, that so pervade contemporary
society.
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The Puzzle of Religious Liberty
The Puzzle of Religious Liberty | Benjamin Wiker | Catholic World Report
Why the affirmation of religious liberty can lead,
ironically, to its extinction at the hands of the secular state.
A Most Puzzling Puzzler
I invite the reader to think through an
interesting and very serious conundrum. Many of us are rightly alarmed at
ever-bolder attempts by our increasingly secular state to violate the religious
liberty of its citizens.
To ward off such violations, we embrace the
relevant part of the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof …” We therefore invoke the so-called “Free
Exercise Clause” as a shield to impede attempts by the state to control or
prohibit the free exercise of our religious convictions (and implicitly, the
“Establishment Clause,” as we’ll see).
We do not tend to regard this shield as
something merely man-made, a rule that happened to be adopted in a game and now
we must stick to (“Collect $200 if you pass Go”), but a rule written, somehow,
into our very nature—indeed, a kind of sacred, inviolable right.
That is certainly the way the American Catholic
bishops wielded the First Amendment last summer when the Obama Administration
attempted to use an HHS mandate to force Catholic institutions to provide
insurance coverage for contraception, abortifacients, and sterilizations. The
bishops cried out, “Religious Liberty.”
The embrace of religious liberty as a right was
memorably expressed by James Madison in his “Memorial and Remonstrance” (1785).
Madison, one of the great Founders, is considered to be the father of the Bill
of Rights, so it would seem we’d want his opinion about the First Amendment.
“The Religion…of every man,” Madison proclaimed, “must be left to the
conviction and conscience of every man; and it is the right of every man to
exercise it as these may dictate. This right is in its nature an unalienable
right.”
In fact, Madison declared that this right was
rooted in a duty, “the duty of every man to render to the Creator such homage
and such only as he [i.e., every man] believes acceptable to him [presumably,
but not unambiguously, God].”
Here comes the puzzler, which I’ll set out in
semi-syllogistic enumerated steps.
January 15, 2013
Coming soon: "Fire of Mercy, Heart of the Word, Vol. 3" by Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis
Available in February 2013 from Ignatius Press, the third and final volume (of four projected volumes) Leiva's commentary on the Gospel According to St. Matthew:
Fire of Mercy, Heart of the Word, Vol. 3: Meditations on the Gospel According to St. Matthew
by Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis
To the unstudied eye, St. Matthew's gospel can seem a terse narrative,
almost a historical document and not the tremendously spiritual (and
doctrinal) storehouse that it is. In his third volume of meditations on
Matthew (chapters 19-25), Erasmo Leiva 
continues to show Matthew's prose
to be not terse so much as economical-astoundingly so given its depth.
The lay reader can derive great profit from reading this. Each short
meditation comments on a verse or two, pointing to some facet of the
text not immediately apparent, but rich with meaning.
Leiva's work is scholarly but eminently approachable by the lay reader.
The tone is very much of "taste and see how good the Lord is" and an
invitation of "friend, come up higher!". The goal of the book is to help
the reader experience the heat of the divine heart and the light of the
divine Word.
Leiva comments on the Greek text, demonstrating nuances in the text that
defy translation. He uses numerous quotes from the Fathers and the
Liturgy of the Church to demonstrate the way the Tradition has lived and
read the Word of God. His theological reflection vivifies doctrine by
seeking its roots in the words and actions of Jesus.
"Fire of Mercy has become a classic of Catholic culture. It is
certainly original, like no other meditation on the Scriptures you will
ever read."
- John Saward, Author, The Beauty of Holiness
"This is a biblical commentary with scholarship and, above all, a prayerfulness that is a great gift to the Church. "
- Sr. Wendy Beckett, OCD
Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis obtained his Ph.D. in
Comparative Literature and Theology from Emory University. Formerly a
Professor of Literature and Theology at the University of San Francisco,
he is now a Trappist monk at St. Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, Mass. In
addition to Vols. 1 & 2 of Fire of Mercy, he is the author of several other books including The Way of the Disciple and Love's Sacred Order.
Coming soon: "Fire of Mercy, Heart of the Word, Vol. 3" by Erasmo Leiva
Available in February 2013 from Ignatius Press, the third and final volume Leiva's commentary on the Gospel According to St. Matthew:
Fire of Mercy, Heart of the Word, Vol. 3: Meditations on the Gospel According to St. Matthew
by Erasmo Leiva
To the unstudied eye, St. Matthew's gospel can seem a terse narrative,
almost a historical document and not the tremendously spiritual (and
doctrinal) storehouse that it is. In his third volume of meditations on
Matthew (chapters 19-25), Erasmo Leiva continues to show Matthew's prose
to be not terse so much as economical-astoundingly so given its depth.
The lay reader can derive great profit from reading this. Each short
meditation comments on a verse or two, pointing to some facet of the
text not immediately apparent, but rich with meaning.
Leiva's work is scholarly but eminently approachable by the lay reader.
The tone is very much of "taste and see how good the Lord is" and an
invitation of "friend, come up higher!". The goal of the book is to help
the reader experience the heat of the divine heart and the light of the
divine Word.
Leiva comments on the Greek text, demonstrating nuances in the text that
defy translation. He uses numerous quotes from the Fathers and the
Liturgy of the Church to demonstrate the way the Tradition has lived and
read the Word of God. His theological reflection vivifies doctrine by
seeking its roots in the words and actions of Jesus.
"Fire of Mercy has become a classic of Catholic culture. It is
certainly original, like no other meditation on the Scriptures you will
ever read."
- John Saward, Author, The Beauty of Holiness
"This is a biblical commentary with scholarship and, above all, a prayerfulness that is a great gift to the Church. "
- Sr. Wendy Beckett, OCD
Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis obtained his Ph.D. in
Comparative Literature and Theology from Emory University. Formerly a
Professor of Literature and Theology at the University of San Francisco,
he is now a Trappist monk at St. Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, Mass. In
addition to Vols. 1 & 2 of Fire of Mercy, he is the author of several other books including The Way of the Disciple and Love's Sacred Order.
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