I am excited to announce that my latest book, Holiness for Everyone, has just been released! Yesterday I received a box full of the book (an author’s most joyous moment), and am shipping them out to all who have ordered them this week. What’s that? You haven’t ordered a copy yet? Well, waste no time and get to it.

In case you are hestitating, asking yourself, “Will this book help me?” and “Am I really included in ‘Everyone’?”, let me give you a few points to consider.

First, let me say what this book is NOT about:

• It is not a biography of St. Josemaría Escrivá.
• It is not a book about Opus Dei.
• It is not a book about how holy I am (as that would be quite a tall tale).
• It is not a history of how people have become holy.

So, what is this book about? I’m glad you asked:

• It is a book about how YOU can become holy.
• It is a book which helps resolve the tension between our “church life” and our “secular life,” and how both can be used to draw us closer to God.
• It is a book for literally everybody – businessman, stay-at-home mom, construction worker, etc. Every life situation can be a means to holiness.
• Since I am not holy, it is a book which uses the proven guidance of a canonized saint to help you develop a practical plan to achieve holiness.
• It is a book which Scott Hahn has called “wonderful.”

In a nutshell, Holiness for Everyone is a guide that takes you step-by-step through a practical means for becoming exactly what God wants you to be: a Saint!

If you are still not convinced, feel free to download the Introduction and Chapter 1 to get a taste for the book.

Order now!

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!

I’m sure you all are thinking, “Eric isn’t blogging much anymore, so how can I get my fix of his writing?” Well, if you are a fan of delayed gratification (and who isn’t?), you can now pre-order my next book, Holiness for Everyone, and it will be shipped to you in just a few short months (i.e. March 2012). You can buy it either from me (a signed copy) or from Amazon (boring non-signed copy).

What is this book about? I’m glad you asked! From the back cover:

God intends nothing less than sainthood for you!

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.

Eric Sammons tells how twentieth century Spanish priest—and canonized saint—Josemaría Escrivá, the founder of Opus Dei, recovered the message of the universal call to holiness.

Declared “the saint of ordinary life” by Pope John Paul II, St. Josemaría developed a spirituality directed toward the sanctity of every man and woman. His legacy is the belief that each of us can, by God’s grace, achieve holiness through the course of our ordinary life and work.

The heart of Sammons’ practical guide to the spiritual life is a detailed examination of the steps in St. Josemaría’s thoughtful plan for building a saintly life in spite of your hectic work and home life – in a world filled with distractions and temptations.

Strive for your own personal holiness as you implement your daily plan to:

• Be a Contemplative in the Midst of a Busy World
• Live a Life of Prayer
• Recognize the Presence of God
• Make a Plan of Life
• Make Your Work a Way to Heaven

Holiness for Everyone! will inspire you as it sets your feet on the path to sainthood.

“Eric Sammons shows that St. Josemaría has recovered the most powerful truth of classic Christianity and restated it in a way that is compelling for men and women of our time.”
From the Foreword by Scott Hahn

Pre-order your copy now!

I am very excited to announce my next book:

Holiness for Everyone
The Practical Spirituality of St. Josemaría Escrivá
Foreword by Scott Hahn
Spring 2012, Our Sunday Visitor

Holiness for Everyone is a guidebook which gives practical advice on how anyone can become a saint. Since I am not a saint, however, I cannot write such a guidebook on my own, so I instead use the teachings of an actual saint – St. Josemaría Escrivá – as the basis for the book.

St. Josemaría

When Catholics hear mention of St. Josemaría, too many think, “Oh, he’s the Opus Dei saint,” and then relegate his life and teachings as applicable only to Opus Dei members. What a shame. As you will see in Holiness for Everyone, St. Josemaría developed over many years of work and prayer among laypeople a spirituality whose goal is the sanctity of every man and woman. He insisted that every person could, with the grace of God, achieve holiness through ordinary life and work. In other words, he did not intend his spirituality only for an elite group, or for those separate from the world, or for a select subset of laypeople. He intended it for all people, no matter their state in life.

The spirituality of St. Josemaría is for everyone – laborer, executive, mother, teacher – regardless of your state in life, the teachings of St. Josemaría can help you draw closer to God in ordinary life and grow in holiness. In this book I hope to make St. Josemaría’s teachings accessible to non-Opus Dei members so that they can benefit from them just as so many members of the apostolate he founded have for decades. St. Josemaría is a canonized saint of the entire Catholic Church, not just one segment of it.

I was honored to have Scott Hahn, a member of Opus Dei, write the foreword to the book. Here is an excerpt of his foreword:

My family within the family is called Opus Dei (Latin for “The Work of God), which was founded by St. Josemaria Escriva in 1928. The teachings of that saint are the subject of this wonderful book by Eric Sammons. I myself have written a book about “The Work.” It’s titled Ordinary Work, Extraordinary Grace: My Journey in Opus Dei, and it’s a personal account, an insider’s view, though addressed to anyone who might be interested or curious.

I could not have written a book like Eric’s. Perhaps I could not have written a book as useful as Eric’s, for he sees my family inheritance from a different perspective. He is not a member of Opus Dei — though he has studied its spirit and learned from it — and so he sees it from the outside. Sometimes that means he sees it more clearly and more attentively and more appreciatively. He has helped me to gain a better appreciation for the family life to which God has called me.

Eric knows that the heart of family life is the parent-child bond. In natural families, that heart is not always healthy. In no natural family is it perfect. But the heart of Opus Dei is something greater. Opus Dei draws its life from the fact of divine filiation — the fact that all Christians become children of God through baptism. That doctrine took hold of St. Josemaria Escriva as God inspired him to spell out what it means for children of God to live in a material world…

Eric Sammons shows that St. Josemaria has recovered the most powerful truth of classic Christianity and restated it in a way that is compelling for men and women (and children) of our time.

And to give a taste for the book, here is a detailed Table of Contents:

• Introduction
• Called to Be Saints
• A Modern-Day Saint
• Laying the Foundations
  • Abba! Father!
    • Our Father God
    • Heirs to a King
    • Sons in the Son
  • Free to Love
    • Created Free
    • Limits Lead to Freedom
    • Many Paths to Holiness
    • “The Truth Will Make You Free”
    • Free to Surrender
    • Free to Start Anew
  • Ambitious for Holiness
    • “Zeal for Your House Consumes Me”
    • Excellence in All Things
    • Fighting Lukewarmness
    • Hating Sin
• Building a Saintly Life
  • Be a Contemplative in the Midst of the World
    • Live a Life of Prayer
    • Recognize the Presence of God
    • Make a Plan of Life
  • Make Your Work A Way to Heaven
    • Offer Your Work to God
    • Make the Secular Sacred
    • Take Flight from Fantasy
    • Work Out Your Salvation
  • Live in the Family of God
    • Follow the Pope
    • Love Mary
    • Honor St. Joseph
  • Proclaim Christ to the World
    • Be a Faithful Friend
    • Be an Apostle Not an Activist
    • Be Transformed
• Conclusion: “This is God’s Will for You, Your Sanctification”

I hope and pray that this book will help many people to grow in holiness and become what we are all meant to be: saints.

A few items that might be of interest:

• Last week was the Orientale Lumen conference, which I was unfortunately not able to attend. However, many of the talks are now available online over at Ancient Faith Radio. I particularly recommend the talk by Sr. Vassa Larin.
• Fellow blogger Brandon Vogt has been giving away books, and this week’s giveways are personal favorites of mine: St. Josemaría Escrivá’s The Way, The Forge, and Furrow. Go there to get a chance to get some great books for free!
• This week’s OSV Newsweekly includes an article I wrote called Liturgical Attitude Adjustment. It is intended to help Catholics get the most out of their participation in the Mass.
• Finally, Jennifer Fulwiler over at Conversion Diary has been running a series of posts by guest bloggers on each word of the Our Father. I contributed today’s post on the word “us”.

Also, happy Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul!

The latest issue of OSV Newsweekly includes an article I wrote in which I review five books which are intended to help Catholics participate more fully in the Mass:

What’s a surefire way to start a heated discussion among practicing Catholics? Make a comment about the Mass — about the music, the prayers, the homily … or just about any part of the Mass — and you’ll be sure to stir up strong opinions and vigorous debate.

Although such arguments can sometimes denigrate into uncharitable attacks, it is natural that Catholics feel passionate about the Mass; after all, according to the Second Vatican Council, it is the “source and summit” of our lives as Christians. It is both the source of the graces we receive and the summit of the Christian life. It is, quite literally, the most important thing that we can do in this world, and it prepares us for our life in the next world. The Mass is worth feeling passionate about.

These passions are sure to come to the fore again soon as the Church prepares for a new English translation of the Roman Missal, to go into effect Nov. 27, the first Sunday of Advent. The new translation is more faithful to the original Latin as well as to the biblical sources of the Mass. But, as with any change, it is sure to cause frustrations and even some ill feelings.

As Catholics, we should always take a step back and remind ourselves of the fundamental importance of the Mass, which transcends debates over translations, music and homiletics. Fortunately, a number of books have been published recently that intend to refocus our attention on the Mass and its place in the authentically Catholic life.

Continue reading…

My OSV article for Pope Benedict’s Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week is now available online:

New ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ book is pope’s opus
In the second volume of his series on Jesus, Pope Benedict XVI shows himself a master theologian, pastor and mystic

The greatness of a great man is not always recognized in his own time. Although some figures are so incredible that everyone immediately realizes their significance, others are only later recognized for their full import. This is true for popes as well. When Pope John Paul II reigned from the chair of Peter, almost everyone realized what a world-changing man he was. But when Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger became pope, few considered him as much more than a “place-holder” pontiff. Now that he has been pope for almost six years, most pundits would still dismiss his achievements on the stage of Church history.

Yet Joseph Ratzinger — now Pope Benedict XVI — is one of the greatest theologians to ever hold the office of the papacy, and his impact on the life of the Church — especially in theological studies — can hardly be overstated. Centuries from now, his works will still be studied and examined, and will be impacting Catholic theology in ways we cannot today imagine. He is one of the great minds of our day, despite the fact that the unthinking still paint him as a hard-line “conservative” Catholic.

Continue reading…

I was honored to receive an advanced copy of Pope Benedict’s Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week last month, so although it is just being released today, I have already completed it. I have written an article about the book for OSV which should appear shortly, but I also hope to write a few blog posts about it here as well.

It is hard to write anything about this book without sounding like a teenage girl gushing about Justin Bieber. Like the first Jesus of Nazareth book, this volume was outstanding, combining the Pope’s immense talents as a scholar, pastor and mystic. The Pope is able to stand toe-to-toe with any scholar, yet he always keeps a single-minded focus on directing his readers to a personal encounter with our Lord Jesus Christ.

I found many deep insights in this book, but perhaps the most stunning statement made by Pope Benedict is found on the very first page of the Foreword. Our Holy Father writes,

One thing is clear to me: in two hundred years of exegetical work, historical-critical exegesis has already yielded its essential fruit. (Emphasis added)

I had to read that sentence two and three times before I accepted that the Pope really wrote that. In this statement the Pope is challenging the very foundations of the biblical scholarship world. For two hundred years, there has been a race by academics to come up with the “latest” theory about Jesus, resulting in a plethora of contradictory and often ludicrous ideas about “who Jesus really was.” Yet behind this race is not a desire to really know the identity of Jesus, but to create the latest sensation in the academic world, which leads to book contracts and better jobs. If you write that Jesus is who the Church claims him to be, then your academic career will become sidetracked. But if you write (with scholarly authority) that he was a transvestite Muslim, then you are surely on your way to academic fame.

The Pope undercuts all of this. He sees the Historical-Critical Method as a tool with limited applications – and those applications have now yielded their “essential fruit.” In other words, the focus of studies of Jesus should no longer be driven by the Historical-Critical Method, but instead should be driven by a desire to know the Jesus confessed and proclaimed by the Church: the eternal Son of God who saves us from our sins.

And this is the Jesus presented to us in Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week. He is not a figment of some scholar’s imagination, but instead the God-man who millions throughout history have lived and died for. The pope is urging us to encounter this God-man in our own lives today.

If you want to be an informed Catholic (and why would you not?), then there are two books that must be read and understood: the Bible and the Catechism. However, neither of these books is an “easy read” – both total hundreds of pages and touch on difficult and complex subjects. Because of this intimidation factor, many people don’t know where to start and so don’t start.

Fortunately, the Coming Home Network has devised a plan to read both the Bible and the Catechism in a year. It can be found here:

Read the Bible and the Catechism in a Year

As the Plan states:

The Catholic Church has always venerated the divine Scriptures, and teaches that “Sacred Scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit.” She also, “forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful to learn ‘the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ’ (Phil. 3.8) by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures. ‘Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.’” (From the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, nos. 9, 21, and 25)

Many of us today do not know our faith well. But thanks to the loving initiative of Pope John Paul II and the Bishops of our Church, we now have a universal Catechism which explains what Catholics are to believe in a format that is easy to read and addresses current issues.

By making a commitment of only twenty to thirty minutes a day, you can prayerfully read through the entire Bible and/or Catechism in one year! Use whatever Bible translation you like that contains the entire Canon of Scripture. This guide is divided by month, but you can start at any time.

H/t: Charles

This year, for the first time, I decided to keep a log of all the books I read. I spend a lot of my free time reading, but I never really tracked what I was reading, so I thought this would make an interesting experiment. I tracked each book, how many pages, and what general category the book fell into. Here are my results in 2010:

• 12,807 pages
• 51 books
  • 5 books in Philosophy
  • 3 books in Classic Literature
  • 9 books about Saints
  • 5 books in Christology
  • 4 books on Eastern Christianity
  • 5 books by Doctors of the Church
  • 4 books in General Theology
  • 4 books in Spirituality
  • 6 books about Baseball
  • 1 book about writing
  • 5 books in “Other”

Below are ten of my favorite books from this year (note: these are not books necessarily published in 2010 but books I read this year). I tried to make an effort to include books from all the different categories from which I read.

10) Beyond Belief, Josh Hamilton

9) Adventures in Daily Prayer, Bert Ghezzi

8) Hymns on Paradise, St. Ephrem

7) Jesus as God: The New Testament Use of Theos in Reference to Jesus, Murray Harris

6) Frankenstein, Mary Shelley

5) On Hope, Josef Pieper

4) How to Profit from Your Faults, Joseph Tissot

3) The Resurrection of the Son of God, N.T. Wright

2) The Filioque: History of a Doctrinal Controversy, A. Edward Siecienski

1) Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, Eric Metaxas

Yesterday I had a book signing at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, and I was pleased that another OSV author, Greg Jeffrey, who wrote Why Enough Is Never Enough: Overcoming Worries About Money –A Catholic Perspective, shared a table with me:

Greg Jeffrey and me at the National Shrine

I highly recommend Greg’s book. When I first heard about it, I thought it was another financial planning book, but instead it is more of a spiritual look at finances: how money makes us anxious (no matter how much – or how little – we have), and how our attitude – and our anxiety – towards money affects our entire lives. I have often realized that it is amazing how much energy we spend on thinking about money – not actually spending and using money – but just thinking about it. This book is a great resource to put that part of our lives in proper perspective.

Also, we both start our books with stories that take place on a subway – but his is far more hair-raising!

I am sometimes asked by publishers and authors to review a new book coming out, and if the book looks interesting, I happily agree. After all, I love books. Brazos Press recently asked me to review Bert Ghezzi’s new book “Adventures in Daily Prayer.” Considering that Bert is my editor at Our Sunday Visitor, I felt I had to say yes. So I received the book and began to read it. I admit that sometimes I read a review book only in order to review it; in other words, I don’t really read it intensely and for personal benefit, but instead only to write a review of the book. I also admit that I started reading this book with this attitude. But once I began, my whole attitude changed. I realized that this was a book that could truly help me in my own prayer life, so I changed gears and began to seriously – and prayerfully – read it. I am very glad I did, because this is an excellent guide for anyone who is serious about prayer.

For the first fifteen years after I made a commitment to follow Christ I was never faithful to a daily prayer life. I would pray every day for a week or even a month, but then I would fall out of my routine and take months to get back into it. Not surprisingly, I also found during this time that I made little progress in growing in holiness: sins stayed persistent and I had much anxiety and little faith guiding my decisions. Then, about eight years ago under the spiritual direction of a wonderful priest I began to pray daily and to stick with it. I made it a priority to pray every day no matter what. This routine has been life-changing: I am still far from the perfection God calls us to, but my whole attitude towards growing in holiness has changed and anxiety no longer rules my life as it once did.

But I still have very far to go, and this is where Bert’s book is so useful. You see, Bert has been praying daily for fifty years, so he knows a thing or two about it. He shares his insights and reflections from these fifty years in an incredibly accessible and helpful way. He combines his own personal experiences with the wisdom of Scripture and the Saints to help the reader along the path to a deeper prayer commitment. He addresses subjects such as listening to God, praying with Scripture and recognizing God’s presence, all in a manner that can be practically applied in one’s life. No matter if you are a beginner at daily prayer or have been doing it for years, Bert’s experiences are sure to be helpful.

I am convinced that daily prayer radically changes lives, and Bert Ghezzi has given his readers a wonderful guide to participating in daily prayer in his new book, “Adventures in Daily Prayer.” I recommend it highly to anyone who is serious about growing in holiness (and shouldn’t that be everyone?).

Fr. Thomas Dubay, SM has passed on to his reward.

Fr. Dubay is most known for his work Fire Within, which is a classic of spirituality and which I would recommend to anyone who is serious about deepening their life of prayer. However, it is not even my favorite Dubay book. That would be Happy Are You Poor, in which Fr. Dubay argues (persuasively, in my mind) that every Christian should live a life of poverty. And if you think you know what he means by that, I challenge you to read the book to actually find out.

May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

It is an interesting time to be an author. By “interesting,” I mean exciting/scary/confusing/revolutionary. All of this excitement/fear/confusion/revolution centers around modern technologies, which are changing the face of reading and publishing. There are two main effects that this technology is having on the industry:

1) Ease of publication: now anyone can cheaply “publish” a book, meaning that they can bind paper together in a nice format, or they can put their book on a e-reader device. What used to be a barrier to entry no longer exists.

2) E-Reading: reading doesn’t have to involve paper anymore. Now we can read on our computers, our phones, our iPads, our Kindles and a whole host of other devices. I have mentioned previously that most people erroneously believe that e-reading is just the next step in reading that everyone will eventually take, but there is no question that e-reading is a major factor in the publishing world now.

So what does this all mean? Some are claiming that old-school publishers are dinosaurs no longer needed in the 21st century. Others believe that the low barrier to entry means that readers need some form of filter to distinguish the wheat from the chaff and therefore traditional publishers are still very much needed. Either way, authors need to be more than just good writers these days; they need to be savvy about all the options available to them when it comes to publishing.

I tend to believe that traditional publishers are still quite necessary, but that they do have to adapt better to modern trends. The dirty little fact of self-publishing is that most of it is crap that the author’s mother wouldn’t even want to read. Most people recognize this and so they put their faith in established publishing companies to find the truly well-written works out there (and they realize that those publishing companies improve those works by their editing staff). But there are very good books hidden among the self-published masses, and some people have been very successful with self-publishing.

But one trend which most publishing companies have resisted is the trend of making more and more writing available for free. Due to the free nature of content on the Internet, most people have become more and more accustomed to paying nothing for something. They don’t mind paying for a book if they think it worthwhile, but they are often unwilling to do so “sight unseen” – they want to be able to at least read some of it first (this is why I got Our Sunday Visitor to agree to allow me to offer the Foreword and Introduction to my book Who is Jesus Christ? Unlocking the Mystery in the Gospel of Matthew available as a free download – more details coming soon). Too many publishers, however, feel like the content of their books are not to be tasted until full admission has been paid.

Self-publishing has its place in the publishing world, but only in very specific instances. The authors most likely to be successful in self-publishing are those who already have built a following for their works through traditional publishing means (for example, if J.K. Rowling decided to self-publish a book, you don’t think it would fail, do you?), and also have the ability to pay others to edit their works (almost no author can self-edit – it is just an affliction of the trade). These trusted names do not need the engine of traditional publishers to drive them to success – but such people are few and far between.

That being said, traditional publishing houses must become more adept at not only following the trends in publishing, but setting them. They need to realize that there has been a seismic shift in the publishing world and their continued success depends on remaining in front of it. The world of books would become a chaotic place indeed if traditional publishers were to disappear, so here’s hoping that they can succeed in the 21st century.

This coming year I will have one child receive her confirmation and another receive his first confession and first communion. As a parent of five young children, one of the greatest responsibilities I have is to prepare my children for their reception of the sacraments. It is a maxim of the Catholic Faith that a saintly life is a sacramental life – one simply cannot become a saint without the help of grace, and the sacraments are the best way to receive that grace. So I take very seriously the need to have my children ready when it comes time for them to receive a sacrament for the first time.

One of the best ways to do this is to give them books which explain the sacraments in such a way that they can understand better the reality of what is happening when they go to confession or receive communion or are confirmed. I have not found a lot of good books out there, but one great book is offered by Precious Life Ministries, called “The Little Butterfly Who Loved Jesus.” Precious Life also offers other books on the Faith, and they have been aggressive in getting their books into the hands of missionaries around the world to help Catholics everywhere to instruct their children in the Faith.

Precious Life Ministries is run by three sisters who each have large families and have been very active in pro-life work through the years. Their purpose in running this apostolate is not to make money, but to bring children everywhere closer to Christ in his sacraments. I highly recommend them and I encourage you to buy some of their books or just give them a donation to help their worthy cause.