Revised Book List for Resurrection Book Club, 2024-2025

These books were chosen by the book club for reading next year.  We’re going to read them in the order listed below.  We will be meeting on the first Wednesday of each month (except for February and March), starting at 6:30pm, in the lower room of the parish office.
 

1. Wednesday June 5^th.  Loving Samaritans: Radical Kindness in an Us vs. Them World by Terry Crist … Available on Amazon in Kindle and paperback

As a pastor committed to building deep relationships with people whose life experiences are different than his own, Terry Crist knows the beauty and challenge of connecting across dividing lines of race, economic status, faith, and much more. And in this book, he shares how you can too.  Profoundly weaving the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well with his own stories and examples from culture today, Terry addresses how we've strayed from the unity God intended and how we can trade judgment for grace, disputes for harmony, apathy for empathy, and hate for love and acceptance. 

1. Wednesday July 10^th.  Our Lady of Hot Messes: Getting Real with God in Dive Bars and Confessionals by Leticia Ochoa Adams and Nora McInerny … on Amazon in Kindle, paperback

Leticia Ochoa Adams met Jesus in a dive bar when she was eighteen years old. She didn’t actually meet Jesus, but it was there where she first witnessed holiness in action. The bar’s regulars taught her about the importance of community, being honest about who she is, not giving up on people, and how to laugh—even when awful things happen.  In Our Lady of Hot Messes, Ochoa Adams tells the ongoing story of her redemption. At times funny and heartbreaking, but always gritty and unflinchingly honest, her story shows that no matter what you’re dealing with, God wants you to trust in his love.

1. Wednesday August 7^th.  Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World: Finding Intimacy with God in the Busyness of Life by Joanna Weaver … on Amazon in Kindle, hardcover, paperback

An invitation for every woman who has ever felt she isn’t godly enough, isn’t loving enough, isn’t doing enough. The life of a woman today isn’t all that different from the lives of Mary and Martha in the New Testament.  With her fresh approach to the familiar Bible story, Joanna Weaver shows how all of us, Marys and Marthas alike, can draw closer to our Lord: deepening our devotion, strengthening our service, and doing both with less stress and greater joy.
 

1. Wednesday September 4^th: Living Joy: 9 Rules to Help You Rediscover and Live Joy Every Day by Chris Stefanick … Available on Amazon in Kindle, hard cover, paperback

 With evidence, experience, and common sense, Chris Stefanick presents nine rules that will empower you to overcome the obstacles that are keeping you from unspeakable joy. You'll learn why - Gratitude is the first key to unlocking deep joy - Silence creates space in your life for happiness - Rest, friendship, and fun are integral to joyful living and so much more.
 

1. Wednesday October 2^nd: Heroic Catholic Chaplains: Stories of the Brave, Holy Men Who Dodged Bullets While Saving Lives: by Thomas Craughwell … on Amazon in Kindle, hard cover

For nearly 200 years—standing alongside our heroic military men and women—have been heroic Catholic priests risking their lives to carry wounded soldiers to safety and to console, anoint, and absolve the dying.   Heroic Catholic Chaplains spotlights the stories of these courageous, selfless, holy priests who volunteered to bring the Mass and the sacraments to American troops, while also offering them their friendship and spiritual counsel.
 

1. Wednesday November 6^th. Welcoming the Holy Spirit with Padre Pio by Susan De Bartoli … Available on Amazon in Kindle, paperback

In Welcoming the Holy Spirit with Padre Pio, Susan De Bartoli shares stories and wisdom from the life of this humble monk to show how we can use our unique spiritual gifts to love others and draw from the well of faith to encounter Christ in profound ways.
 

1. No Meeting in December
2. Wednesday January 8^th. The Name of God is Mercy by Pope Francis (author) and Oonagh Stransky (translator) … Available on Amazon in Kindle, hard cover, paperback

In this conversation with Vatican reporter Andrea Tornielli, Francis explains—through memories from his youth and moving anecdotes from his experiences as a pastor—why “mercy is the first attribute of God.” God “does not want anyone to be lost. His mercy is infinitely greater than our sins,” he writes. As well, the Church cannot close the door on anyone, Francis asserts—on the contrary, its duty is to go out into the world to find its way into the consciousness of people so that they can assume responsibility for, and move away from, the bad things they have done.
 

1. Wednesday February 12^th. Making Room by Kyle Kramer … Available on Amazon in Kindle, paperback

Most of us fall short of fully living out our values, especially if they are countercultural ones like simplicity and soulfulness. As both a family man and the Executive Director of the Passionist Earth & Spirit Center in Kentucky, Kyle Kramer knows that struggle. In Making Room he writes not only as an eco-spiritual expert but also as a fellow pilgrim on the journey toward simplicity, which he defines as the choices that create the freedom to honor our own deepest needs, the concentric circles of human relationships, and God’s gifts of the natural world.
 

1. Wednesday March 19^th.  The Long Loneliness: the Autobiography of the Legendary Catholic Social Activist by Dorothy Day … Available on Amazon in Kindle, paperback

The Long Loneliness is the late Dorothy Day’s compelling autobiographical testament to her life of social activism and her spiritual pilgrimage. A founder of the Catholic Worker Movement and longtime associate of Peter Maurin, Dorothy Day was eulogized in the New York Times as, “a nonviolent social radical of luminous personality.” The Long Loneliness recounts her remarkable journey from the Greenwich Village political and literary scene of the 1920s through her conversion to Catholicism and her lifelong struggle to help bring about “the kind of society where it is easier to be good.”
 

1. Wednesday April 2^nd: No Regrets: A Practical Guide to the 4^th Quarter of Your Life by Allen Hunt and Matthew Kelly … Available on Amazon in Kindle, hard cover

A captivating and groundbreaking fable, No Regrets is the only book out there that provides a roadmap for how to make the most of the final season of life. If you are searching for greater meaning in your life, then join authors Allen Hunt and Matthew Kelly as they reveal five incredible secrets to living intentionally and making the most of your own fourth quarter. No matter what quarter of life you find yourself in, you will be inspired, moved, and encouraged to make the most of the one life you've been given." 
 

1. Wednesday May 7^th: Potluck dinner/party with family and friends.