Sunday, September 18, 2011

Book Reflections: Sinner: The Catholic Guy's Funny, Feeble Attempts to Be a Faithful Catholic




About the Author:


Lino Rulli is the host of the popular radio show, The Catholic Guy, which can be heard on The Catholic Channel on Sirius/Xm.  If you have not had the pleasure of listening to Lino, do yourself a favor and tune in to his show.  A word of warning, it's not the typical Catholic radio show.  It's funny.  No seriously, Lino is hilarious.  He is going to talk about things you don't hear on other Catholic radio shows.  He is going to be honest, sometimes awkward and embarrassingly honest.  He can push the moral boundaries and occasionally may be borderline irreverent, but he speaks from the heart about issues that face most of us but most of us don't have the courage to speak about publicly.  Lino has no shame.  He airs out all his faults and failings for all the world to hear and often criticize.  He is a pioneer in Catholic radio.  I for one have great respect for this sinner named Lino Rulli.

About the Book:

Much like his radio show, Lino's book is a laugh from cover to cover, in a good way.  Like his radio show, this book is not filled with spiritual quotes and words of wisdom.  Lino prefers to evangelize in a more subtle way, by telling entertaining stories and being himself.  His comedic personality comes out in his book just like it does on the radio.  As Lino himself would probably say, this is not a Catholic book, it is not a Christian book, it's just a book.  It's a wildly entertaining book that isn't a sermon, but you don't have to look too hard to find spiritual lessons in this book.  Sometimes those lessons come from the mistakes Lino made.  As the title of the book suggests, he knows that he is a sinner.  However, he recognizes his sinfulness and frequently seeks forgiveness.  He has three chapters that I can think of dedicated to the Sacrament of Confession.  The refreshing thing about Lino is that from the very beginning he states that he believes in everything the Church teaches and believes (which is rare these days), he just struggles to live out his life as a Catholic.  We all can relate to this struggle to be holy.  All of us are sinners.  What makes Lino such an effective voice in Catholic media is that he knows how to reach the younger people.  The teen - 30s crowd.  This is not to say older folks can't learn something from Lino, but Lino's blunt honesty and down to earth approach is very attractive to younger people.  Sometimes I wish that Lino would address some of the more serious issues especially the pro-life issues of abortion and euthanasia, but I guess I can't really blame him.  How in the world do you make comedy out of abortion?  As a Respect Life Coordinator at my parish, I wish I could attract young people to the very important pro-life issues in a way that Lino attracts the youth.  Maybe he can give me some pointers one day.  There are too many great stories in this book to even begin to list.  I recommend this book to Catholics, non-Catholic Christians, and non-believers.  All people should be able to read and enjoy this book.  Don't believe me?  His book has been endorsed by the likes of Archbishop of New York Timothy Dolan, and the controversial radio personality Howard Stern.  I give this book the highest rating I can think of; 5 noses!  If you don't get that joke, start listening to Lino on the Catholic Channel.  Oh and one more thing, read this book!

Sinner: The Catholic Guy's Funny, Feeble Attempts to Be a Faithful Catholic

 

The Catholic Channel



Thursday, September 8, 2011

Book Reflections: The End and the Beginning: Pope John Paul II



The End and the Beginning: Pope John Paul II -- The Victory of Freedom, the Last Years, the Legacy is George Weigel's follow up to the biography on Pope John Paul II he wrote over a decade ago; Witness to Hope.  This book is over 500 pages, but that is half the size of Witness to Hope.  I think that this was a good read, but if you have already read Witness to Hope there is not much new in this book.  This book was written because new information had been obtained since the writing of Witness to Hope in regards to the Communists attempts to bring down Pope John Paul II.  I found some of these stories very interesting.  One thing I learned is that there is a lot more going on behind the scenes than most people realize.  The Pope has a very difficult and huge responsibility.  No matter how faithful a person is, someone will be quick to criticize any action or inaction even people within the Church.  Pope John Paul II is undoubtedly one of the great people of the 20th Century.  He inspired millions of people of all faiths.  This book can get a little tedious at times, and if you want a more complete biography of Pope John Paul II I would recommend that you first read Witness to Hope.  However, this book is a good supplement to Witness to Hope.  Just make sure you set aside plenty of time.  I wouldn't say it's a book you can't put down, but I would recommend to people who want to learn as much as they can about Pope John Paul II, and those who are interested in the inner workings of the Vatican.  

God Bless,

Mike