IP#158 Mary Elizabeth Sperry – Bible Top Tens on Inside the Pages

Mary Elizabeth Sperry,  in a way fascinating way, organizes Bible topics and people into multiple lists in “Bible Top Tens: 40 Fun and Intriguing Lists to Inspire and Inform” .  More than just a “trivia” book, “Bible Top Tens”,  is another way to exprience the Bible.

You can find the book here

From the description:

This book is intended to open Scripture in a brand new way. By organizing important people, places, and events into lists, we can reframe our experience and understanding of God’s Word, while serving as a memory aid or providing ideas for further reading and study.

Discover the top ten Bible misunderstandings, the top ten things to know about the Bible, the top ten animal stories, the top ten angelic appearances, or the top ten miracles.

Get introduced to the top ten women with attitude, the top sibling rivalries, the heroes, the villains, or even the top ten people you should know but probably don’t.

Explore the top ten parables, promises, or challenges from Jesus.

IP#157 Mike Aquilina – Mothers of the Church on Inside the Pages

Leave it to the wonderfully thoughtful Mike Aquilina to bring us the lives of just some of those glorious maternal nurturers we call “the Mothers of the Church”.  From the well known Sts. Perpetua and Felicity and St. Monica to lesser known “mothers” like Proba the Poet and St. Olympias, Mike, along with his co-author Christopher Bailey, share their inspiring stories.  Mike Aquilina’s sincere love for these women and the witness they have provided us in our present age helps us to appreciate, once again, what God can do with ordinary people who are open to His extraordinary grace.

You can find Mike’s book here

The Mothers of the Church include:

Holy Women of the New Testament
–St. Blandina
–St. Perpetua and St. Felicity
–St. Helena
–St. Thecla
–St. Agnes of Rome
–St. Macrina
–Proba the Widow
–St. Marcella
–St. Paula
–St. Eustochium
–St. Monica
–Egeria the Tourist

IP#155 Elizabeth Kantor – The Jane Austen Guide to Happily Ever After on Inside the Pages

What great fun and an outstanding resource all in one fantastic book.  I love Jane Austen…I love this book.  Elizabeth Kantor gets it so right!  The book description says it best:

Women today are settling for less than we want when it comes to men, relationships, sex, and marriage. But we don’t have to, argues Elizabeth Kantor. Jane Austen can show us how to find the love we really want.

In The Jane Austen Guide to Happily Ever After, Kantor reveals how the examples of Jane Austen heroines such as Elizabeth Bennett, Elinor Dashwood, and Anne Elliot can help us navigate the modern-day minefields of dating, love, relationships, and sex. By following in their footsteps—and steering clear of the sad endings suffered by characters such as Maria Bertram and Charlotte Lucas—modern women can discover the path to lifelong love and true happiness.

Charged with honesty and humor, Kantor’s book includes testimonies from modern women, pop culture parallels, the author’s personal experiences and, of course, a thorough examination of Austen’s beloved novels.


You can find the book here

 

“This book would have helped me avoid a few broken hearts for sure! Kantor teaches you how to guard your emotions in an independent, sophisticated, and empowered way through Jane Austen’s works. She offers timeless wisdom for the modern woman, and most importantly, encourages us to take our relationships seriously.”

—Amy Bonaccorso, author of How to Get to “I Do”

IP#153 Mark Brumley – YOUCAT on Inside the Pages

It’s great to be joined once again by Mark Brumley!  This time we discuss YOUCAT, an engaging a catechism designed for a youthful audience.  I say “youthful” because it appeals to seekers in all age groups.  Bright in design, filled with questions and answers, and thoughtful in its presentation of doctrine,  YOUCAT, on every page, brings the faith alive.  A fantastic resource for every home…a perfect gift for confirmation kids and adults alike.  Especially in the light of the challenges facing the Catholic faith in today’s world, we talk with Mark the need for this particular resource.

You can find out more here

What Pope Benedict XVI has to say about the YOUCAT project:

“Study this Catechism with passion and perseverance. Make a sacrifice of your time for it! Study it in the quiet of your room; read it with a friend; form study groups and networks; share with each other on the Internet. By all means continue to talk with each other about your faith.”


IP#152 Stephen Binz – Learning to Pray with Scripture on Inside the Pages

Stephen J. Binz is a Catholic biblical scholar, psychotherapist, popular speaker, and award-winning author of more than thirty books on the Bible and biblical spirituality.  “Learning to Pray with Scripture” is another volume in the excellent “Lectio Divina” series brought to us by Our Sunday Visitor.  In it, Stephen uses the actual prayers of Sacred Scripture to help us enter a deeper relationship with God through our own prayer.  This series is outstanding and an absolute MUST for those seeking a great guide to this ancient prayer form!

You can find this book here


This study shows the way that various characters in the Bible prayed and what they can teach you about prayer.

It also delves into various types of prayer and what you can learn from them.

Every chapter leads you forward through a sequence of:

  • Listening – Reading Scripture with expectancy, trusting that God will speak His Word to us through it
  • Understanding – Seeking to comprehend the meaning of the text, encountering God there and being changed by that encounter
  • Reflecting – Linking the truth of the Scriptures to the experience of faith in the world in which we live
  • Praying – A dialogue with God: we listen to God, then we respond in prayer
  • Acting – After prayerfully listening to God through a passage of Scripture, we should be inspired to make a difference in the way we live

IP#151 Joe Paprocki – The 7 Key to Spiritual Wellness on Inside the Pages

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In “7 Keys to Spiritual Wellness,” best-selling author Joe Paprocki provides a prescription for spiritual health based on the rich wisdom of Catholic Tradition.

The Saints have repeatedly taught us that our souls can get spiritually sick and die.

Joe’s new book focuses on the root causes of spiritual sickness. Each chapter identifies a specific threat to the health of our souls and offers strategies for beating that virus.

His keys to spiritual wellness are:

  1. Seeing Yourself as You Really Are
  2. Actively Seeking the Good of Others
  3. Thinking Before Acting
  4. Holding on Loosely
  5. Recognizing and Setting Limits
  6. Channeling, Not Repressing, Your Desires
  7. Unleashing Your Imagination

You can find the book here

 

IP#149 Katherine Becker – The Dating Fast on Inside the Pages

In this episode we have a conversation with Katherine Becker, author of  “The Dating Fast: 40 Days to Reclaim Your Heart, Body, and Soul”.  Katherine is wonderfully articulate in describing her experience with “fasting” from the dating scene and how others can benefit from the practice.  The books description really does describe it best:

The endless cycle of boyfriends and breakups got to be exhausting–emotionally and spiritually. When a friend introduced Katherine to the idea of the “dating fast,” she rediscovered her joy for life. You don’t have to “kiss dating good-bye,” but a forty-day, Scripture-based retreat from the fray works wonders. Romantic love isn’t dead, says Katherine, but you have to know where to look for it.

You can find the book here

Be sure to visit Katherine’s website

“In order to be truly ready for a romantic relationship, you must first love and respect yourself. Katherine Becker’s forty-day dating fast is an excellent tool for self-reflection to understand yourself better and grow in love, confidence and faith. Following this fast will better prepare you for relationships, and is a solid step toward a fulfilling life, with or without a spouse.”  —Anita A. Chlipala, MA, MEd, LMFT, Relationship Reality 312, Inc.

IP#148 Emily Stimpson – The Catholic Girl’s Survival Guide for the Single Years on Inside the Pages

Emily Stimpson is a delight to talk with and her book “The Catholic Girl’s Survival Guide for the Single Years: The Nuts and Bolts of StayingSane and Happy While Waiting for Mr. Right” is a great subject to discuss!  With style and class, and a great big portion of honest hopeful heart sharing, Emily crafts a work that is a must for all Catholic women, not just the single girl.

Filled with humor and reflection, as well as practical insight, it is “steeped in the Church’s teachings on the feminine genius, marriage, and theology of the body, The Catholic Girl’s Survival Guide dishes with both wit and wisdom on some of the most pressing questions single women face: vocation, dating, sex, finances, work, depression, and more.” Not to missed, and must be passed on to others!

You can find the book here

Also visit EmilyStimpson.com

“Emily Stimpson has written a book that manages to be light-hearted about the serious subject of singleness for Catholic women, but is still full of practical, nitty-gritty suggestions for growing through difficulties. Always uplifting, “The Catholic Girls Survival Guide for the Single Years,” offers timeless truths that help women see beyond current circumstances to grasp the bigger picture of life as a beloved daughter of God. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is a single Catholic woman—or anyone who wants to learn how to love single women better. I don’t know of another book that does what this book does for single women—it’s simply outstanding! Kimberly Hahn, Author “Life-Giving Love”