When my friend came back from a Catholic homeschooling conference she was excited to present this set of DVDs to me, since I teach art at our local co-op. I shared in her excitement even before previewing it: a complete elementary school art curriculum, written by a Nashville Dominican sister? Wow.
The Blackbird's Nest is the story of St. Kevin of Ireland (498 A.D-618 A.D.). I first became acquainted with his legend in Seamus Heaney's poem, St Kevin and the Blackbird. In both Heaney's poem and in this beautiful picture book it's a fabulous story about a real historical figure, the abbot and founder of the monastery at Glendalough.
I picked up Phonics Pathway because Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer recommended it in the first edition of The Well-Trained Mind. When I mentioned to a friend that I had bought this book, she wrinkled her nose and said, “Let me know what you think,” implying, of course, that I probably wouldn’t think much of it. Nothing could be further from the truth. I love Phonics Pathways.
This is a fantastic reference book for a wide variety of reasons - especially for those who don't have Internet access or who don't want their children to do searches on the Internet.
Our Sunday Visitor has been publishing an annual Catholic Almanac for over one hundred years. Teachers, educators, parents and many others will find a great deal of useful and well-organized information at their finger-tips.
The text is divided into four main sections with numerous sub categories beneath each one. Here's a quick overview:
It’s not every day that a picture book is written about a Pope, especially from the point of view of a cat.
Joseph and Chico is the delightful story of Pope Benedict XVI’s life as told from the viewpoint of Chico, a cat who lives at his residence in Bavaria. With a lively conversational tone, he relates the life of Pope Benedict XVI, beginning with his birth and touching on the important events in his life.
This is a fascinating travel/apologetics documentary focusing on the story of Saint Peter as related in the New Testament. Apologist Steve Ray travels to Rome and many sites in the Holy Land to tell Peter's story. He provides fascinating details of the connections between particular places and important events in Peter's life.
The New Catholic Answer Bible is a pretty standard revised New American Bible (RNAB) plus inserts about various aspects of Catholic teaching. It is not (as I had at first thought) a "study Bible" with lots of notes about the Scriptural content, relating it to doctrine, liturgy, history, etc. The inserts are basically short apologetic tracts written by a pair of well-known Catholic apologists. A reference to the book of the Bible into which they are inserted often, though not always, provides a connection.
The New American Bible with Revised New Testament and Revised Psalms (RNAB) has several problems that prevent my recommending it for Bible study or devotional reading. These can be classed into three major groups: (1) failure with regard to dignity, beauty, and doctrinal precision, (2) bowing to the externally-imposed linguistic norm of so-called “inclusive language,” and (3) a skeptical attitude toward the Sacred Scriptures. Not incidentally, the second problem contributes significantly to the first, and shares roots with the third.
We discovered this little gem years ago, after falling in love with two of the authors' other books: The Good Master and The Singing Tree. I was thrilled to recently discover that Bethlehem Books is bringing it back into print.
The story begins in a small village near Prague. In this village, young girls are expected to leave home and work as servants in the big city during their early teen years; returning home at the age of sixteen, with experience in all manner of household service and ready to start their own families.
I love conversion stories, they are the best kind of romance. When I find a good one online (and aren't they all good?) I devour the whole thing. Even if it's pages and pages long. Leap of Faith is a great conversion story. There aren't many novels that explore the faith of young people. Especially not faith in its nascent stages as doubt gives way to yearning. And then yearning leads to the moment when the leap is made: