“I will read more this year.”
“I want to support local.”
Those are among the most common New Year’s resolutions, so to help you do both we offer this selection of books written and edited by local Catholic writers.
Arise Shine & Live: On Resilience, Faith, and Bipolar Disorder
By Lisa Rumpel
Arise Shine & Live collects the columns of B.C. Catholic columnist Lisa Rumpel in one place. Writing about her experiences with bipolar disorder, Rumpel shares her story with intimacy and encouragement. The book is a great read for anyone looking for consolation and practical day-to-day mental health advice.
“After much therapy and opening up to friends with my story, I found peace in owning my challenge and using it to guide others. Talking about mental health and resilience shatters the stigma that I hold about having an invisible illness. I realized, my story is not my own, and by releasing it, it becomes a story of victory.”
Order Arise Shine & Live: On Resilience, Faith, and Bipolar Disorder from Amazon.
My Body for You: A Pro-Life Message for a Post-Roe World
By Stephanie Gray Connors
Local pro-life activist, Stephanie Gray Connors injects new focus and purpose into the pro-life movement. Diving deeply into the common pro-abortion arguments, Connors challenges every reader to see them through the lens of who we are, what we are made for, and why living out Christ’s words – “This is my body, given for you.” – is the secret path of victory for life.
“In the pages that follow, I aim to share my experiences and insights as a debater, and now a mother, to provide a robust defense of the pro-life message while exploring the topics of pregnancy and abortion. Part apologetics, part memoir, part sharing the Good News, the hope is that my words inspire readers to a deeper level of love … . As my one hand rocks the cradle, I want to use the other to give you, dear reader, a message to change the world.”
Order My Body for You: A Pro-Life Message for a Post-Roe World from stpaulcenter.com.
9 days to Corpus Christi
By Father Richard Conlin
Father Richard Colin’s first foray into devotional writing offers a well-thought-out spiritual preparation for the feast of Corpus Christi. Conlin was the assistant pastor at Corpus Christi Parish in Vancouver until his studies took him to Rome. The book guides the reader through a nine-day novena focused on cultivating an interior life of Eucharistic devotion, followed by an octave of reflections to help the reader develop an exterior devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. It also contains a collection of prayers to foster devotion to the Blessed Sacrament year-round.
“I remember exactly where I was kneeling when I realized in a whole new way that the Eucharist I just received was not ‘blessed bread,’ but – in fact – a living person … When I got off my knees I knew that my life was forever changed. This real encounter I had with Jesus radically changed the direction of my entire life, setting me on a whole new path that culminated in my vocation as a Catholic priest.”
Never-ending Love: Sharing Stories, Prayers, and Comfort for Miscarriage and Infant Loss
Edited by Anne Louise Mahoney, with contributions by locals Anna Eastland, and Monique and Ryan LeBlanc
Never-ending Love offers a range of perspectives on the ways faith can be a source of support, hope, and healing for parents grieving the loss of a child before, during, or shortly after birth. The book hopes to make it normal for people to share stories of infant loss to help communities rally around suffering parents. It’s a good read for grieving parents, as well as people who want to offer those parents support.
Of special interest is the testimony of Abbotsford local Monique LeBlanc and her husband Ryan who give a couple’s perspective to infant loss. Contributor, Delta resident Anna Eastland is originally from Vancouver.
“So often in the face of suffering, we find ourselves doing of saying nothing out of fear of doing or saying nothing. The chapters of this book are a confirmation that for many people experiencing miscarriage and infant loss, the absence and silence actually contribute to and worsen the pain of loss.”
Order Never-ending Love: Sharing Stories, Prayers, and Comfort for Miscarriage and Infant Loss from Novalis.
The Sum of All Things: Essays Old and New
By Gerry Turcotte
President of St. Mark’s College Dr. Gerry Turcotte has collected a volume of his award-winning columns written for the Catholic Register, which also appear in The B.C. Catholic. In the author’s words, the essays concern anything and “everything under the sun.” They offer a sprawling array of topics, including positive thinking, guardian angels, and paralyzed chickens. Ultimately the essays “are a call for all of us to recognize the magical in the ordinary, the light in the darkness, and the Divine in the mundane.”
“If any of these essays strike a chord, then I am humbled and delighted. Enjoy the small things, the big things, and all things great and small. The strength of a healthy humanism, and a dynamic faith life is found, after all, in the sum of all things.”
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