Religion

The Sacrament of Confirmation for Confirmation Candidates is a concise, thorough, and faithful resource for confirmation preparation.

The book is divided into three parts. The first section covers what the sacrament of Confirmation is and the rite and its effects, providing a basic understanding of the sacrament in question-and-answer form. The second section breaks down the creed as it explains the truths of the Catholic faith. This also is presented in question and answer form. The third section discusses witnesses (or martyrs) of the Faith and highlights the lives of a few, selected saints.

A sample Q&A from Part I:

Q. When did Jesus institute the sacrament?

A. After having promised this sacrament, Jesus instituted Confirmation on the day of Pentecost when He sent the Holy Spirit on the Apostles and Mary gathered in the Cenacle. The Apostles immediately began to preach and make known their faith in Jesus Christ, crucified and risen.

Other questions in Part I include, “How is the sacrament of Confirmation conferred?", "What is chrism?" and "What are the names of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit?"

I particularly like the way they break down the Creed into question and answer form in Part II, giving depth and meaning to it as they explain many truths of our Faith. The questions include many which are often asked of Catholics, making this a helpful apolgetics tool. For example:

Is faith the only way to know that God exists?
How can our reason prove the existence of God?
Why do we say that God is Father?
What does the expression ‘Mother of God’ mean in reference to the Virgin Mary?

The spotlight on a few selected saints in Part III also serves as a starting point for candidates to pick their confirmation names, inspired by the holiness of the saints’ lives.

Almost every page includes a colorful illustration, which brings to life the points of the text. One of the best examples of this is when the text discusses the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. We see a galley ship with the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit written on the sails and seven virtues of the Holy Spirit written on the oars. Underneath the picture we read,

The virtues are like oars which propel the boat forward with great effort; the gifts of the Spirit are like sails which push the boat forward without any effort on the part of the rowers.

While the illustrations are not outstanding, they are quaint and colorful.

The logical presentation of the facts written in easy to understand language makes this book accessible for any age Confirmation candidate. The questions go beyond rote memorization by helping the candidate to reflect on the truths of the faith.

This book could be used in either a classroom or homeschool setting. When the time comes, I plan to use this with my children who are preparing for Confirmation.

The Seashell on the Mountaintop is a very welcome biography of St. Neils Stenson, also known as Nicholas Steno and about 16 other variations. The good news is that, after years of neglect, this convert, this holy man, and this founder of the science of geology is being pulled from the edge of oblivion to be remembered for his true greatness. The title of the book refers to the presence of fossil shells in the mountain soils of Italy and , among other places, and the long effort to interpret such a curiosity. As a Dane, Neils had not grown up in the presence of fossils, but he went to Italy as an adult and joined the academy that had been Galileo's fellowship a generation earlier. Here he took an interest in everything around, including the hills of Tuscany and their shells.

The geology part is interesting because Steno's ideas were so far ahead of others' that those who were interested in figuring out the fossil puzzle read them for a hundred years before they were able to take the next step in building the science. During his own lifetime, Neils was famous for he was a seminal thinker on several topics, but by the time the geologists were able to build on his work, his extraordinary personality was almost forgotten although, even today, the principles expressing our basic understanding of sedimentation are still called Steno's laws.

Cutler's gives a striking account of the competing ideas about fossils in Stenson's days – late 17th century. Did shell forms naturally grow in the soil? And if so, did they grow with breakages and wormholes and all, just as if they'd been on the shore? Were they dropped by Noah's Flood? If so, how had they come so far inland; many thought that Noah's finding a live tree branch after the flood meant it could not have brought salt water all the way inland everywhere. Cutler presents all this material thoughtfully and in a manner respectful of the mental challenges of another age, so easy to underestimate.

Not only the shells interested Neils, but also the faith of Italy, and though welcomed by the Florentine academy as a Lutheran, he became a Catholic in time, then a priest, and finally a very holy bishop of a vast tract of Lutheran Europe, for whose salvation he relinquished his scientific investigations and then sacrificed his health.

This is a good introduction to the 17th century, to geology, and to a saint with a wonderful, Renaissance mind.

This is a beautiful, Academy Award winning movie depicting the apparitions of Our Lady to Saint Bernadette in Lourdes, France, in the mid-1800s. The depiction is accurate - based on the book of the same title by Franz Werfel - but also beautifully and powerfully produced. Jennifer Jones is the simple and unpretentious Bernadette, Vincent Price is a town magistrate who is skeptical of the apparitions and rather hostile to Bernadette. An excellent family film and one of the finest Hollywood films of a religious nature.

Ben Hatke's illustrations are the icing on the cake of this wonderful little book. Job is famous for his biblical faithfulness over the most unfortunate circumstances. It is a tremendous story for us in our day, and Regina Doman brings it to life for children--and for adults as well! What a tool of hope in the dark days we live in. The final illustration of the happiness of the couple around their pregnancy and children should be made into life-affirming posters everywhere!