Penance: Walking with the Infant
Penance: Walking with the Infant is one such book which follows one man s journey into faith through an accidental stumbling upon the novena in the church of Our Lady of Victory in Prague. The first person narrative shares with us his nine day stay as he reflects on his impatience, lack of humility, gluttony, and doubt through seemingly casual internal monologues with the Infant. He gains an understanding of himself and his faith and brings the reader along for the lessons. The continuous quotations from saints, the examples of the faithful throughout history, and the realization that everyone faces the same questions helps Penance read more like one s own journal than that of an American professor abroad. Early in the text, author Bob Kunzinger writes:   You ve not yet learned about devotion, have you? St. Teresa of Avila? It s one of devout contemplation and concentration. You re still too distracted. I stare at the Infant. The altar is of red and grey marble made in 1776. In the upper part are sculptures of God the Father and St. Joseph and the Virgin Mary. He stands on a crystal-adorned pedestal, also decorated with Czech garnets and a large, heart-shaped ruby. The statue stands about forty-seven centimeters tall and has a silver casing to the waist... and proceeds to bring the reader right to the altar, next to the Infant, through fine detail and precise history... These dialogues continue.  St. Jerome said, Be at peace with your own soul...   ... and heaven and earth will be at peace with you. Yes, I know. But Jerome lived in the fourth century. He must have been surrounded by peace. Sure he translated the bible into the commoner s Latin; sure his vulgate bible stood as the basis of the Latin that became the romance languages, but what kind of pressure was he under that called him to seek peace to begin with.   Exactly. The stress we suffer that precludes peace is not always from some external source. Even the most recluse of souls, like St. Anthony of Egypt, needed to pray and seek peace in their soul before they could comprehend peace in the world. In fact, the lack of peace we find in the world has less to do with our mortal circumstances than with the condition of our immortal soul. Penance: Walking with the Infant explores our own fears of devotion, our own attempts to balance faith with everyday interruptions. More than a few times throughout the text Bob Kunzinger shares his own shortcomings and doubts as well as the readers . The book entices us all to explore further our definitions of devotion, humility, sacrifice and faith. It is one of those rare books that takes one of the most famous and revered subjects in the world, the Infant Jesus of Prague, and provides a contemporary and accessible approach. --Catholic Exchange Book Review