The week between Christmas and New Year’s seems to always be
the week when I read more books than any other time of year. It’s that wonderful stillness of this week
that allows for a few extra hours of indulgent reading. No sporting events, no birthday parties, no
shopping, no school. Just staying home
and playing, resting, recovering!
So, I wanted to share with you the book I just
finished. It is called “Pope Awesome and
Other Stories: How I found God, had kids and lived to tell the tale” By Cari
Donaldson. It was such an awesome book I
couldn’t put it down and it merits sharing.
I bought this book for Brett as a Christmas present, but wanted to flip
through it the other day and make sure it still looked as intriguing as I
thought it would be when I gave it the ten-second glance over at our church’s
bookstore last week. Well, once I read
the preface and started the first chapter, I couldn’t put it down. So, I
finished it. Now Brett is the recipient
of a used book. Sorry honey!!
This book is written by a woman who converted to Catholicism
in her early thirties, and it tells her very unlikely and insanely comical journey
from a spiritually lost individual to one who found her faith and purpose in
life. It is so funny that I laughed
until I cried during several parts of the book. Brett came in to the bedroom as I was
laugh-crying hysterically the other night and said, “What in the world is wrong
with you?” I almost couldn’t explain I
was laughing so hard. The author has a
perfectly sarcastic and witty tone that makes a book about a subject that is
actually quite serious so enjoyable, relatable and approachable. The book covers about fourteen years of her
life beginning on the day she married the love of her life in “a twenty-minute
Presbyterian ceremony that I insisted must be scrubbed clean of all references
to Jesus.” Although they began their
marriage with an emphatic proclamation they would never have children, her faith
journey makes her completely reevaluate her vision and her concerns about
children, marriage, and life in general.
The author began her faith journey looking for a path to God,
knowing for certain she would not find it in Catholicism, then after
eliminating all other faith and belief systems, realized to her dismay that
there was really only one left, and once she opened herself up to it, fell in
love with the beauty of the Catholic faith.
She now has six little ones and says that by the grace of God her life
is more magnificent than anything she could have possibly ever dreamed up for
herself. Her story is so touching, so
real and so uplifting.
There are so many funny anecdotes in this book. It is hilarious to read the account of
someone you know to now be a devout and enthusiastic Catholic describe her
previous irritation (prior to her conversion) with all those crazy Catholics
for standing vigil at church in anticipation of the death of John Paul II back
in 2005. And all the TV coverage and
hoopla! On the day John-Paul
finally passes, the author is in a local café getting lunch with her husband
and daughter and looks up to see on the TV that he has passed, and she
inexplicably bursts into tears. She runs
to the bathroom in embarrassment and cries her eyes out, not knowing why. Numerous little incidents like this one,
along with lots of what she calls “late night internet research” eventually
lead her to call her neighboring Catholic Church for RCIA classes.
I highly recommend this book to any Catholics out there and
also recommend it to anyone who is friends with or a relative of someone
Catholic and has always wondered, “What is the deal with Catholicism? Why is (s)he Catholic? I don’t get it!” Her journey and her research address a lot of
the most common questions about Catholicism and the Church’s often
misunderstood teachings and positions (on marriage, on birth control, on Mary, on the papacy, for example). It’s
not a book meant to convert anyone, but certainly approaches the Catholic faith
from an outsider’s perspective and then narrows in on what I (and most
Catholics, I presume) find to be the most significant and most beautiful
aspects of our faith.
As with all great books (and aren’t there SO MANY of
them!), this one will inspire you and make you a better person. (And in the off chance it doesn’t, it will
give you a good laugh or two!).
You can order and autographed copy of this book directly
from her at clan-donaldson.com or get a copy on amazon where it is available in paperback
or on kindle.
Happy New Year, friends!
And happy reading in the new year! If you have any book suggestions for me, please send them my way!
