Now in Print: Why Is There a Menorah on the Altar? Jewish Roots of Christian Worship

In print at last! In print at last!
Thank God Almighty,
my new book is in print at last!

For a while, I thought I'd have a much better chance of seeing Jesus come again in glory, but a carton filled with printed copies of Why Is There a Menorah on the Altar? was at long last delivered by UPS earlier this week.

Of course, the snafus continue, latest one being Amazon.com's persistent belief that "this title has not yet been released." I've asked the publisher to look into it, as well as authorize (note ironic word use) the "Look in the Book" function. We'll see how long that takes, meanwhile I hope you will:

• order my book by clicking through to amazon.com from the Shelfari widget on this blog.

• post a favorable review directly on the amazon.com page for this book.

• encourage adult faith formation folks in your church to use my book as foundation for discussions about Judaism's enduring legacy. I wrote this book for Christians who worship at "high liturgy" churches.
  

• contact me directly (as someone already has) with your personal concerns about the ecumenical turn my work and life seem to be taking.
  

And now, I think I'll go sit on my front stoop to wait for Jesus and Elijah.

The Catechetical Value of Home Decor

When The Catholic Home: Celebrations and Traditions was published in 2004, one reviewer accused me of reducing Catholicism to colored place mats. (Like that was a bad thing?)

If I were more mature, I'd no longer be cheesed off by that snarky comment. I'm not more mature. Even worse, experiences since then have made me fairly triumphalistic about the catechetical value of home décor. Yesterday's encounter with the plumber is a fine example.

After writing out an invoice for my latest skirmish with the garbage disposal, the plumber handed it to me and said, "I notice you have a lot of religious stuff around here." Yes, I do.

I practice what I write, so my home is filled with religious artifacts I've collected and received as gifts. My home is painted in colors that prompted one visitor to exclaim, "Wow, this is like walking into a Byzantine icon." There's lots more -- arranged in what I hope is a tasteful and visually pleasing way.

Well, turns out the plumber had been raised Catholic, educated in Catholic schools, did the altar boy thing, no longer goes to church, and recounted it all with exasperated affection. I listened, laughed in the right places, mentioned how I view church as being much more than a building. The plumber told me about his sense of Christ's presence. And so forth and so on for twenty minutes that, thank God, were not added to the invoice.

Over the years, I've had similar conversations with guys who have trooped through The Hermitage to clean lint out of my dryer vent; inspect my damp basement; deliver a washing machine; figure out why certain electrical outlets weren't working. I never start these conversations about faith and religion; my décor does.

Book Review: Hear My Voice (Children's Lectionary)

Hear My Voice: A Children's Translation of Gospel Readings of the Catholic Mass for 2009
123 p. 8.5" square
Hardcover: $18.95
Review pages at Prayer Press

A pre-publication copy of this marvelous book arrived over the weekend. Author Jonathan Stampf and illustrator Robert Conrad deserve glory, honor and praise for their fine contribution to liturgical resources.

Hear My Voice has everything I look for -- and hope others do, too. First, it's a gorgeous book, beautifully designed and illustrated in a user-friendly trim size. The full-color illustrations are charming without being mawkish. In fact, they abound with historically accurate details of buildings, clothing, terrain, and food. The colors are vibrant and sophisticated; no visual dumbing down with primary colors!

And the content? My guess is that parents will get as much out of reading this as kids. In fact, any adult could benefit from reading how Stampf interprets the Lectionary readings (included in a sidebar). He uses colloquial language without devolving into slang. Be very grateful: You won't find Jesus addressing the Apostles as "dudes." You'll find smart, vocabulary-building text that will benefit readers of all ages.

The best part: this finely nuanced text places Stampf well within the ancient Jewish tradition of Midrash, something Jesus himself would have known, appreciated, and probably used when he wasn't speaking in parables.

Hear My Voice will be available this November. Start the new liturgical year right by ordering it now! Also available through the Catholic Company.

Product Review: Faith Database

Faith Database
CD: $39.95
[1,646 MB]
Annual upgrades planned.

This review was written as part of The Catholic Company product reviewer program.
Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Faith Database CD-ROM.

Faith Database is the labor-of-love brain child of Tim Cooper who entered the Catholic Church in 2003. For five years, Cooper collected Catholic resources for his own study. Then, while leading a parish-based group on early church writings, he wrote a computer program linking doctrine to scripture and content in those early texts.

With encouragement and guidance from folks at Catholic Answers, the project evolved. Launched in August, Faith Database allows users to search through writings by the early Church fathers, Doctors of the Church, popes, and orthodox theologians (e.g., Chesterton, Newman); 10 different translations of scripture; Church Council documents; the Catechism of the Catholic Church, The Old Catholic Encyclopedia, the Baltimore Catechism, and the Code of Canon Law.

Via email I asked Tim to tell me more about his vision for the project. "My original intent was for all Catholics for wish to learn their faith better," he wrote. "As a former Protestant I can say with all sincerity that most Catholics don't know what they have and most Protestants don't know what they're missing." Yesterday I spent a lot of time wandering through Faith Database to see what was there and to evaluate the ease of navigation.

Mostly I used key words from research for my new book about the Jewish roots of Christian identity and religious practice. I greatly appreciated the convenience of having all church writings and scripture in one place. Normally I log on to several different websites to find this stuff. The database of art images and maps is a useful, inspiring addition.

While I didn't find everything I wanted, I did find material I needed and was pleased with that outcome. According to Cooper, he and business partner Jerry Suelzer plan to add approximately 10 new texts a month. Personally, I hope they either stick to agreed-upon classics or broaden their view of who is making important contributions to Catholic thought these days.

Technicalities: According to Tim, I'm not the only one who had installation troubles. He admits the install with Vista is very slow. They're working on a new installer program and encourage calls for technical support. I also found the navigation a bit cumbersome and hoping they add a spell check to their next iteration. I have every confidence these technical quirks will get worked out. Meanwhile, Faith Database is a good resource, one that does indeed introduce the Catholic faith.

Read *her* rant!

You don't have to be raising children to appreciate Ironic Catholic's recent post, "Theological Rant 5.0: Youth evangelization isn't rocket science." Any and every adult can serve as a role model; that goes double for those serving as pastoral associates. Of her many fine points, this is probably my fave:

"Stop using teens as volunteer fodder for every dang aspect of parish programming [so] they can check off the Confirmation checksheet. Because frankly, the Israelites didn't like being slave labor either."

And it should comes as no surprise that I loved her points about how what happens in the home generally has more impact on kids than what goes on in the building we call "church." Hope you'll click over to read her great rant.

ArmaDei.com

Monica McConkey arrived at the Catholic Writers Guild booth as I was packing up to leave last week's Catholic Marketing Network Conference.

Thanks to the concrete floor and brutal lighting of the convention center, I was a bit cranky and not at my loving Christian best when she suggested exchanging books. She, however, was so lovely and loving that I did stroll over to her booth for The Arma Dei Publishing Company. Wow! Double wow!!

Does anyone not know how fiercely I advocate high quality in content and design and print production, especially for self-published materials? After seeing way too much junk in the world of print-on-demand and self-publishing, I am fierce to the point of rude about the need for quality control.

Monica's materials? Impeccable on all levels. The visual posted here doesn't begin to do justice to the richness of her products which include a book, flash cards that double as playing cards, crafts projects, and more. The Cathletics Key cards are brilliant in every sense of the word.

Arma Dei materials are great for parish-based as well as home-based catechisis, also gifts -- think RCIA, for example. She says these products are primarily for kids and, gee, I guess so. Many if not all of these items would work for adult faith formation as well. Order direct and while you're at it, demand that your parish, your diocese, and your local Catholic bookstore keep Arma Dei stuff in stock.

I gave her a copy of my book, The Catholic Home in exchange for a deck of Reverence & Awe Collector Cards. I also wanted a set of the key cards but didn't want to descend into gluttony.