Letters to a Young Catholic (Art of Mentoring) [Paperback]

George Weigel (Author)

Book Description

Series: Art of Mentoring | Publication Date: November 1, 2005

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this spiritual memoir-cum-travelogue, Weigel writes with the same beauty and clarity that characterized his biography of Pope John Paul II, Witness to Hope, merging reportage with personal insights about Catholicism. He takes readers on a journey from Maryland to Europe and Israel, visiting sites that are whimsical (G.K. Chesterton’s favorite pub) as well as those that are renowned as holy (the Dormition Abbey in Jerusalem, St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome). Writing in a conversational, epistolary form aimed at young Catholics, Weigel offers a book that simultaneously is, and is not, your grandmother’s catechism: he affirms the core doctrines of the Church, but he does so in a way that is refreshingly contemporary and—because of his emphasis on Church sites around the world—catholic as well as Catholic. Weigel opens the book with an entertaining description of his childhood in the Catholic stronghold of Baltimore, and invites young readers to entertain the idea that Catholicism is not just a creed but an "optic," a rooted way of viewing the world. In the rest of the book, he introduces that world and offers them new lenses with which to understand it. This book is simply first-rate.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Growing up in Baltimore, one of the most Catholic U.S. cities, Weigel knew Catholics were different. They identified with their parish, not their neighborhood. Their school uniforms made them distinctive, and Sunday mass gave them a rich ritual life. But the real difference, he says, is that Catholics had a particular way of looking at the world, based on what he calls a sacramental imagination. In the Catholic worldview, everything matters. Writing directly to young Catholics and for anyone curious about Catholicism, Weigel discusses what it means to be Catholic now. He tours the Catholic world that has shaped his own understanding, and particular places he visits range from Milledgeville, Georgia, deep in the Bible Belt but home of Catholic novelist and apologist Flannery O'Connor, to the Vatican, Chartres Cathedral, St. Stanislaw Kostka Churchyard in Warsaw, and even the Olde Cheshire Cheese tavern in London, a favorite haunt of G. K. Chesterton. This is a luminous work that would appeal to anyone interested in faith, hope, and life itself. June Sawyers
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 16 and up
  
• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (November 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465092705
• ISBN-13: 978-0465092703
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #252,382 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

59 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful read!, May 15, 2004

By 

just bein' Frank (Woodbury, CT) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Letters to a Young Catholic (Art of Mentoring) (Hardcover)

Theologian George Weigel's new "Letters to a Young Catholic" is a remarkable peek into the Beauty of Catholicism. It should be required reading for all Catholics, Protestants -- and even non-Christians!

There is perhaps nobody more suited to write a book like this than George Weigel. Mr. Weigel is the author of more than ten books, including "The Truth of Catholicism," "The Courage to Be Catholic," and, of course, the much-celebrated biography of Pope John Paul II, "Witness to Hope."

"Letters to a Young Catholic" is very much a roadmap of modern Catholicism. Mr. Weigel takes readers on a literary tour of the Catholic world. We visit the most likely and unlikely of places -- from GK Chesterton's favorite pub to the Vatican's Sistine Chapel -- as Mr. Weigel demonstrates that the world and the Church are "the arena of God's action."

He expounds on Catholicism's belief that God's presence can be experienced through art, history, literature, and even other people! As Weigel says, "we can touch the truth of our salvation" -- this life matters!! You'll never think of the Holy Catholic Church in the same way again!

I have never been so struck by the sheer beauty of truth as I was when I read "Letters." In every destination Weigel takes us, he finds opportunities to expound on the Catholic understanding of the world -- and of reality.

Weigel's writing is clear, concise, and convincing. I'd recommend the book to anyone and everyone. Catholics will rediscover the majesty of their Faith, and non-Catholics will be touched -- and challenged -- by the Beauty of Truth.

50 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stimulate Your Sacramental Imagination, August 27, 2004

By 

Rich Leonardi (Cincinnati, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Letters to a Young Catholic (Art of Mentoring) (Hardcover)

During a nightmarish four-hour flight delay in Dallas recently, I had the opportunity to read George Weigel's new book and I can't say (or write) enough about it.

It's part travelogue, part biography and part catechism on the "sacramental imagination", a theme to which he returns again and again.

The devastating critique Weigel makes of "liberal religion" in the chapter on John Henry Cardinal Newman and the Birmingham Oratory is worth the purchase price alone.

He also has a great chapter on the the Old Chesire Cheese, a pub frequented by famous Catholic curmudgeons like G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc.

Weigel describes Belloc's run for a seat in Parliament during the early part of the twentieth century when England was notoriously anti-Catholic. Here is how Belloc kicked off a campaign speech:

"Gentlemen, I am a Catholic. As far as possible, I go to Mass every day. This is a rosary. As far as possible, I kneel down and tell these beads every day. If you reject me on account of my religion, I shall thank God that He has spared me the indignity of being your representative."

He won.

For a sample chapter online, simply "Google" the words "The Scavi of St. Peter's and the Grittiness of Catholicism".

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Young Catholic Who Loved This Book, March 15, 2004

By 

Conor B. Dugan "Book Aficiando" - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Letters to a Young Catholic (Art of Mentoring) (Hardcover)

I purchased this book a week and a half ago and finished it in a few days. Simply put: it is incredible. I warmly recommend it and think it an absolute must have for your library. With his typical verve and style, Weigel introduces the reader to the optic that is Catholicism--he shows you what it is to look at the world with Catholic lenses. And what a beautiful picture it is. Readers of Weigel will notice similar themes to other of Weigel's writings especially "Witness to Hope" and "Truth of Catholicism." But he deepens and personalizes those themes and goes beyond them to answer the questions posed by young Catholics (and I suppose old ones as well). The Catholicism presented by Weigel is earthy and crusty; it deals with the minutiae of everday life. Christ came to redeem it all and still comes to find us through the same mode he came to us in 2000 years ago, namely the incarnational mode.

This means that Christ is found at the pub, in the Church, and in the family. Weigel draws this out by telling us stories of great people, great places, and great moments in the life of the Church. Two that stick out in my mind. The first is Weigel's description of the Scavi under St. Peter's Basilica where the bones of the Apostle Peter lay. This is an example of the earthiness and reality of Catholicism's claim. It's not about some doctrine or some set of esoteric teachings. Rather, it is about real places and people. Peter's bones rest under St. Peter's. This fact stands out there to be dealt with by us. There sit the bones of a man who walked with Christ. There in the ordinariness of a catacomb we come face to face with the extraordinary, as Weigel describes it.

The second is Weigel's description of Chartres Cathedral in France. Weigel uses the beauty of that great piece of architecture to teach about beauty itself and its importance. He gives us a tour of Chartres and tells of its construction and how the people poured themselves into the project. Through this tour we learn of our thirst and desire and need for beauty.

Each letter takes the reader to a place or tells him about a person. "Letters to a Young Catholic" helps to put meat on the bones of Catholicism. After reading this book, you come away with a deeper appreciation for the fleshiness and reality of Catholicism. You learn about how the moral life is related to the thirst for beauty, how contemplation is connected to our ordering of society.

Do I have any criticisms? None really. I only wish Weigel had been a little more personal when talking about vocations. He speaks eloquently to his young reader about finding that task or call which God has picked out for us. I wanted to know about Weigel's journey on that road as he spent time in the seminary. But perhaps that will be in the next book. I wait with anticipation for that next book. You will too after reading this book...