Book Updates
A couple of updates on the book front:
My first book, Who is Jesus Christ? Unlocking the Mystery in the Gospel of Matthew, is now available on the Kindle! Purchase the Kindle version here.
My latest book, Holiness for Everyone, was supposed to be published in early March, but it has been delayed. Fortunately, it is now at the printer and so it should be available in late April.
Have a blessed Holy Week!
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In the write-up for your book, it is stated: “The early Church held that all believers could achieve holiness. Over time this conviction was largely forgotten. Sainthood seemed to be an honor only intended for a select few among the priests and religious … Saint—Josemaría Escrivá, the founder of Opus Dei, recovered the message of the universal call to holiness”.
This is a very popular misconception. Shortly after the Council of Trent, St. Francis de Sales wrote “Introduction to the Devout Life” as a guide for how lay people can be holy in the midst of the world. It could be said that St. Josemaria Escriva largely re-invented the wheel that was rolling along quite well 400 years earlier. A quick perusal of past encyclicals shows that Popes of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries simply took for granted, and at times explicitly taught, that the laity were called to holiness and that they would achieve it by faithfully carrying out the duties of their states in life in the midst of their secular affairs. A quick reference to devotional works, i.e. the 15 promises of Mary to Christians who recite the rosary, is further proof. I think that the only reason we believe that “before the twentieth century, it was believed that holiness was only for priests and religious” is because the liberals have convinced us that this is the way it was before Vatican II.
Now, what was taught before Vatican II was that religious life / celibacy was most conducive to holiness – something that the liberals have also convinced most of us orthodox Catholics was simply a pre-conciliar attitude that Vatican II got rid of. However, the superiority of celibacy to marriage is a dogma of the faith and was in fact taught by Vatican II. Only by seeing Vatican II as a “rupture” with the Tradition could we conclude otherwise – and unfortunately, most orthodox Catholics today have.