Catholic customs...

I've been thinking a lot lately about my faith and all of the things that I do in my life to make it more personal for me. Advent certainly has invoked that, as well as the November thing I have going on that I blogged about a few weeks back.

This morning, on my way to work, I was listening to The Catholics Next Door podcast (linked on my podcast list, if you're interested.) This show consists of weekly excerpts from Greg and Jennifer Willits' daily show on The Catholic Channel, available through Sirius/XM satellite radio. They do an excellent job with it, and never fail to have interesting guests and topics. The specific show I was listening to this morning was from 3 weeks ago (I'm a tad behind; I don't get to listen to my podcasts as often as I'd like) and Scott Hahn was their guest.

I like to think of Scott Hahn as a "Catholic celebrity." Most Catholics have at least heard of him and his well-know and well-respected conversion story, as well as the pleothra of theological books that he has published. On the podcast, he was talking about his most recent book, Signs of Life: 40 Catholic Customs and Their Biblical Roots. This immediately captured my attention.

Dr. Hahn talked about the phenomena of non-Catholics wondering about "those odd things Catholics do" and about the fact that, as a convert, he wasn't aware of the totality of riches the Church has to offer by way of customs and devotions until long after he was confirmed. Dr. Hahn is a renowned Bible scholar, and his books always delve into the Biblical basis for Catholic doctrine and beliefs. So his take on the everyday Catholic devotions that are so dear to me intrigued me. I took a peek at the table of contents on Amazon - he covers a ton of stuff, including holy water, the rosary, the sacraments, the sign of the cross, and - ! - Advent and Lent! This is SO up my alley. It's on my Amazon wish list, for anyone that is intersted in Christmas ideas for me :)

In other book news, I just finished the library book club selection for December, The Princess Bride. I know that this is considered a classic, but it was just 'eh' for me. Mostly because fantasy is just not my genre. Certainly, this is a charming book, and parts of it made me laugh out loud. I didn't dislike it, I just didn't love it. I'm happy to have moved on to yet another entry in the knitting fiction genre. Bliss...