This is a really beautiful little book about morality and the Catholic Faith. It would make a great supplement for high school age or excellent reading for an adult. It's not too difficult to understand, but also interesting and really makes you think.

The author has this to say about the purpose of this book:

A traveler through life gets vivid – sometimes extremely vivid impressions of things near at hand: confused impressions of things seen at a distance or only heard of: but of the whole plan of life, no idea at all. In his mind will be a jumble of facts, tossed about in any order – God, sin, church-going, disease, sacraments, suffering, the treason of friends, hostilities, death and the fear of death, money and the loss of it, God-made-man – and so on without end. But which of these things are big things and which of them are little, he will not know with certainty: the things that have come nearest to himself will seem big things: the remoter things will seem small.

And of the relations of these things one to another – how one thing agrees with, or conflicts with, another – of all this, merely by dint of living, he will have only the most confused and uncertain impression. In fact it may easily happen that a man who merely lives, and neither reflects nor is taught, does not even suspect relationships, but thinks of all things as accidents with no reason in themselves save that they happened, and no connection with each other save that one cam earlier and one came later. Because of this confusion, I propose to try to make what may roughly be called a map of life.

This is a great book to use for a teen group discussion. When I was being homeschooled for high school, a friend of the family guided us in discussions of one chapter every month. We found it very engaging and helpful.

I really enjoyed this quick and easy-to-understand guide to St. Paul and his writings. Well, perhaps "easy-to-understand" isn't fair, because the topics covered here on the writings of St. Paul are not easy ones. Yet this is a reasonably accessible place to start and might even be usable, with some guidance, for a teen Bible study group. I've always been a fan of good writing in small packages (in this case approx. 4 x 6 inches) because not only can I get to the heart of the matter fairly quickly, but also conveniently as the book can be stashed in my purse. This book opens with a fairly detailed biography of the great saint with subtitled sections to make it easier to follow (great for moms who get interrupted a lot from their reading!) Even though I've read (and watched) biographies of St. Paul before, it's hard to keep the details straight in my head. This overview was a very helpful refresher - and also one that can be turned to again and again. The largest chaptert of the book is on "St. Paul's Thought". This is perhaps the most unique aspect of this book and a particularly welcome read in this year of St. Paul. It provides an extremely helpful overview of what St. Paul has given to Catholic theology. A quick read-through of the sub-section titles is helpful: "Why a Pharisee? Why Saul?", "The Word of the Cross", "The Good News of Salvation", "Salvation and Sonship", "The Importance of Covenant", "The Scandal of God's Fatherhood", "We Are 'In Christ'", "The Church at the Center", "Faith and Works", "The Problem of Pain", "Glory in the Cross". I found the chapter on "St. Paul's Letters" to be particularly helpful because, even though I've read all of his letters before, and some numerous times, there's always so much more to learn. Also, I don't tend to have a ready grasp of which letter was significant for which reason. This includes a paragraph or three overviewing and explaining each of St. Paul's Epistles. The book is rounded out with some reflections on "St. Paul and Us", a "Quick Reference for Catholic Doctrines and Practices in St. Paul's Life and Work", "The Quotable St. Paul" and "Prayers to St. Paul." Highly recommended!

During the past few years, there has been a renewed interest in beginning and in continuing traditions within our families within the context of the liturgical year. This book has been written to help make these celebrations easier to plan as well as to provide countless new ideas. Some of these ideas are original while others are traditional. This book is especially well-suited for families with children in the preschool years up through the late elementary years.

The majority of the suggestions for each month are craft-oriented or games that are sure to appeal to younger children. For example, January 17th is the memorial of St. Anthony, patron of basket makers. The book gives a very simple biography of St. Anthony, suggests a "prayer habit", and includes the directions for making a basket out of bread dough. The description for the Feast of the Ascension includes detailed directions for making a kite to ascend to the heavens in addition to directions for making bubble-blowers and bubble solution. Ordinary Time saints' days include a lengthy section describing the making of Catholic games that will help in learning the catechism and in remembering the Saints. Names of some of the games are Jell-O Box Jeopardy, Catechism Categories, Holy Rummoli, and Lists and Levels; don't they sound interesting and fun to play?

The book is organized by the liturgical calendar, beginning with a New Year's Eve party for the beginning of the Church year just prior to the start of the Advent season and continues on to the Feast of Christ the King in late November. The dates and feast days are those of the modern Church calendar, although the listings for some dates include those saints not found on the revised Roman calendar. There are more ideas and suggestions than a family could possibly do; this book should keep your family busy for many, many years. It will be an excellent addition to your family library and a good companion to a book of saint's stories or of church history. 

Mr. Trimming has created several very engaging stories about some of Jesus' most beloved miracles told from the point of view of children. These stories fall into the category of historical fiction. In other words, they are based on real events, but include some fictitious characters and dialogue. This technique allows us to see the story from a different point of view (in these stories, it is from a child's point of view) and more fully understand the story because of historical details such as customs and etiquette of the day. The author develops these stories in such a way that children more fully understand the significance and joy of these miracles. For example, the first story is of the miracle of the Wedding at Cana, when Jesus turned the water into wine. This is told from the viewpoint of Abigail, the young sister of the bride. The story relates how important certain customs related to the wedding ceremony are and how nervous everyone is about the wine being in short supply. We see that running out of wine during the celebration would be a devastating blow to the family and the bridal couple and how even young Abigail fearfully awaits what will happen. After understanding this background, how much more joyous, particularly to the young reader, is it when they see how Jesus (with some encouragement from his mother - "the Widow Mary") comes to their aid? I believe these kind of stories are an excellent way of portraying to children how great Jesus' love is for us.

My children were familiar enough with these stories from the Bible that they delighted in figuring out which story was being told (the background development gives them a little chance for guessing). So enjoyable was this story, in fact, that I was coerced by my daughter into reading the entire book in one sitting. I have to admit that I found the task not at all unpleasant.

In order to give you a sampling of the book, the story of Reuben's Basket, which is about the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, may be read online. Note: A character in one of the stories makes a joke that some may find offensive. Keeping in mind that the author is British (and some of the words involved in the joke have different connotations to British than to Americans); I don't think the joke is a real problem, but you can decide for yourself as the joke in question is included in the chapter that you can read on their website listed above.