Letters to a Young Catholic
By: George Weigel.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 2004
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 251
Subjects: Weigel, George, 1951- -- Travel; Catholic youth -- Religious life
Description: Publisher's description: In this remarkable tour of the Catholic world, George Weigel helps us understand how Catholicism fosters what Flannery O'Connor called "the habit of being." Taking the reader by the hand, Weigel embarks on a journey to Catholic landmarks as diverse as Chartres Cathedral and St. Mary's Church in Greenville, South Carolina; the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem and G.K. Chesterton's favorite pub; the grave of a modern martyr in Warsaw, and the Sistine Chapel. Weaving together insights from history, literature, theology, and music, Weigel uses these touchstones to illuminate the beliefs that have shaped Catholicism for two thousand years. With clarity and conviction, Weigel examines the foundations of Catholic faith and explores the topics of grace, prayer, vocation, sin and forgiveness, suffering, and-most importantly-love. Putting a dramatic face on this invitation to Catholicism, Weigel introduces some of the figures who have shaped his faith and thought-Michelangelo and Fra Angelico; Evelyn Waugh and Cardinal John Henry Newman; Father Jerzy Popieuszko and Pope John Paul II; Edith Stein and Mother Teresa-as he also shares anecdotes from his own Catholic life. To a world that sometimes seems closed and claustrophobic, he suggests, Christian humanism offers a world with windows and doors-and a skylight. In these letters, George Weigel conveys the power of a faith that is at once personal and universal, timely and eternal. His book will inspire not only the young generation of Catholics whose World Youth Day celebrations have launched an era of renewal for the Church, but also the faithful, the doubtful, and the searchers of every age.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: Baltimore and Milledgeville : acquiring the "habit of being"; title: Rome : the Scavi of St. Peter's and the grittiness of Catholicism; title: St. Catherine's Monastery, Mt. Sinai, the church of the Holy Sepulcher, Jerusalem : the face of Christ; title: The Dormition Abbey, Jerusalem : Mary and discipleship; title: The Oratory, Birmingham, England : Newman and "liberal" religion; title: The Olde Cheshire Cheese, London : Chesterton's pub and a sacramental world; title: Castle Howard, Yorkshire, England : brideshead revisited and the ladder of love; title: The Sistine Chapel, Rome : body language, God-talk, and the visible invisible; title: St. Mary's Church, Greenville, South Carolina : why and how we pray; title: St. Stanisław Kostka Churchyard, Warsaw, the metropolitan curia, Krakw : how vocations change history; title: The North American College Mausoleum, Campo Verano, Rome : the hardest questions; title: Chartres Cathedral, France : what beauty teaches us; title: The Old Cathedral, Baltimore : freedom for excellence; title: The Silical of the Holy Trinity, Krakow : on not being alone.